IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v37y2009i6p2241-2248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contextualizing avian mortality: A preliminary appraisal of bird and bat fatalities from wind, fossil-fuel, and nuclear electricity

Author

Listed:
  • Sovacool, Benjamin K.

Abstract

This article explores the threats that wind farms pose to birds and bats before briefly surveying the recent literature on avian mortality and summarizing some of the problems with it. Based on operating performance in the United States and Europe, this study offers an approximate calculation for the number of birds killed per kWh generated for wind electricity, fossil-fuel, and nuclear power systems. The study estimates that wind farms and nuclear power stations are responsible each for between 0.3 and 0.4 fatalities per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity while fossil-fueled power stations are responsible for about 5.2 fatalities per GWh. While this paper should be respected as a preliminary assessment, the estimate means that wind farms killed approximately seven thousand birds in the United States in 2006 but nuclear plants killed about 327,000 and fossil-fueled power plants 14.5 million. The paper concludes that further study is needed, but also that fossil-fueled power stations appear to pose a much greater threat to avian wildlife than wind and nuclear power technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2009. "Contextualizing avian mortality: A preliminary appraisal of bird and bat fatalities from wind, fossil-fuel, and nuclear electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2241-2248, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:6:p:2241-2248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(09)00107-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Lindboe, Hans H. & Odgaard, Ole, 2008. "Is the Danish Wind Energy Model Replicable for Other Countries?," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 27-38, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2017. "Contestation, contingency, and justice in the Nordic low-carbon energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 569-582.
    2. Kaldellis, J.K. & Apostolou, D. & Kapsali, M. & Kondili, E., 2016. "Environmental and social footprint of offshore wind energy. Comparison with onshore counterpart," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 543-556.
    3. Dalton, G. & Ó Gallachóir, B.P., 2010. "Building a wave energy policy focusing on innovation, manufacturing and deployment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(8), pages 2339-2358, October.
    4. Söderholm, Patrik & Pettersson, Maria, 2011. "Offshore wind power policy and planning in Sweden," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 518-525, February.
    5. Huang, Shih-Chieh & Lo, Shang-Lien & Lin, Yen-Ching, 2013. "Application of a fuzzy cognitive map based on a structural equation model for the identification of limitations to the development of wind power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 851-861.
    6. Peter Andreasen, Kristian & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2014. "Energy sustainability, stakeholder conflicts, and the future of hydrogen in Denmark," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 891-897.
    7. Qiuyun Wang & Lu Liu, 2022. "Pandemic or panic? A firm-level study on the psychological and industrial impacts of COVID-19 on the Chinese stock market," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-38, December.
    8. Noel, Lance & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2016. "Why Did Better Place Fail?: Range anxiety, interpretive flexibility, and electric vehicle promotion in Denmark and Israel," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 377-386.
    9. Albertsen, Lau H. & Andersen, Mads & Boscán, Luis R. & Santos, Athila Q., 2020. "Implementing dynamic electricity taxation in Denmark," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    10. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2013. "Energy policymaking in Denmark: Implications for global energy security and sustainability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 829-839.
    11. Saidur, R. & Islam, M.R. & Rahim, N.A. & Solangi, K.H., 2010. "A review on global wind energy policy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(7), pages 1744-1762, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:6:p:2241-2248. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.