Nature conservation assessment for wind turbines: ornithological, bat and other ecological reports and EIA statement
Nature conservation assessment for wind turbines: ornithological, bat and other ecological reports and the EIA statement (UVE), important for authorisation.
Ecological surveys and specialist reports are becoming ever more important for the authorisation of wind turbines, not least because species protection questions now have to be answered in much greater depth. The legal background includes the prohibitions of the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive, such as the deliberate killing or significant disturbance of protected species and the damage to their breeding and resting sites. Added to this are the nature conservation acts of the individual federal states and, where Natura 2000 sites may be affected, the Natura 2000 compatibility assessment, whose designation and requirements depend on the respective state law. The scope of investigation has grown considerably: short statements have become expert reports running to several hundred pages and covering several seasons.
For your project we prepare the environmental impact statement (UVE) as well as ornithological and bat reports. We choose the right timing and scope for the field surveys and carry them out. We write the reports, develop measures where needed and present the results to the authorities and the public. From the very start, all of this takes place in close coordination with our permitting department. The basis for the assessment is provided by the detailed ecological surveys. The assessment of birds and bats is a central part of the documentation and forms the basis on which conditions and avoidance measures are defined.
From a technical perspective, the main issues are collision risk, avoidance behaviour and habitat loss. Birds of prey such as the red kite, imperial eagle, white-tailed eagle and saker falcon are considered particularly sensitive to wind energy, while the reactions of other species to wind turbines are species-specific and site-dependent, ranging from avoidance of the area around the turbines to little or no discernible avoidance. Bats can be killed by collision or by pressure changes near the rotor blades, especially species that hunt in open airspace or migrate long distances. Activity at nacelle height is recorded by nacelle monitoring and evaluated against wind speed. Bat-friendly operating rules, under which turbines are shut down at low wind speeds and on warm evenings, cause yield losses that depend on the site, the operating rule and the defined shutdown parameters and have to be calculated for each project. High sensitivity of a site does not automatically mean a ban on construction. Several seasons have to be taken into account, because birds and bats occur differently depending on the breeding, migration and activity periods.
Measures include a seasonal restriction on tree felling, ecological construction supervision, checks of roost trees, construction periods outside breeding and migration periods, and advance compensation measures such as additional roosting opportunities. Compact turbine layouts reduce fragmentation, while long rows of turbines along ridges are particularly unfavourable for birds. Further options are event-based shutdowns using radar or camera systems, temporary shutdown during mowing or harvesting, and a higher cut-in wind speed. The combined effects of several wind farms must also be considered in the EIA report. You will find further topics for the EIA report under EIA specialist reports for wind farms, and we support the entire procedure with specialist support for the authorisation procedure. After authorisation, biological and ecological monitoring checks compliance with the conditions during operation.
