An orange-bellied parrot perched on the edge of a feeding bowl. The species is listed as critically endangered.
Margot Kiesskalt | Istock | Getty’s paintings
Plans for a serious latest wind farm in Australia were approved this month – on the condition that its turbines will be shut down for five months of the year to protect a species of parrot.
In its Robbins Island Renewable Energy Park environmental assessment report, the Tasmanian Environmental Protection Authority said its board “has decided to approve the proposal” for the project, which could have as many as 122 wind turbines and is overseen by ACEN Australia.
One of the conditions for the approval is for the orange-bellied parrot, which the Australian government says it’s critically endangered.
“Unless otherwise approved by the EPA Board in writing, all WTG [wind turbine generators] should be closed during the OBP Northern Migration Period (March 1 to May 31 inclusive) and the OBP Southern Migration Period (September 15 to November 15 inclusive),” EPA document says.
In an announcement last week, EPA board chairman Andrew Paul said the organization concluded that “significant mitigation measures” were needed due to “the potential impact on the orange-bellied parrot population.”
This was due to “limited knowledge of the importance of Robbins Island in the annual north-south migrations”, in addition to the need to consider the national recovery plan for the species.
“It led to inclusion [project approval] the FF6 condition, which imposes downtime periods during the migration of five months in total when the turbines can’t be operated,” added Paul.
Robbins Island is positioned in the waters off the northwest coast of Tasmania, a big island and state of Australia. If every part goes according to plan, the total capability of the proposed wind farm could possibly be as high as 900 megawatts.
CNBC contacted ACEN Australia through the Robbins Island project website, but received no response prior to publication. Ayala Corporation, the parent company of ACEN Australia’s majority owner ACEN Corporation, didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
In a Facebook post, the project’s developers said they welcomed the EPA’s approval, adding that further approvals were needed from the Circular Head Council and the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water. They said they were expected in early 2023.
In comments reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ACEN Australia’s Director of Operations, David Pollington, described the outage as “totally unexpected”.
The company “needs to consider our options going forward,” the ABC Pollington report said.
With global plans to increase wind capability in the coming years, the interaction of wind turbines with the natural world – including marine and bird life – is probably going to develop into a key area of debate.
The UK-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warns that wind farms “can harm birds through disturbance, displacement, acting as barriers, loss of habitat and collisions”, adding that “impacts can come from a single investment and a cumulative number of projects” .
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported that some wind projects and turbines may cause bat and bird casualties.
“These deaths may contribute to the population decline of species also affected by other human-related impacts,” he notes. “The wind energy industry and the US government are exploring ways to reduce the impact of wind turbines on birds and bats.”
The Brussels-based industry organization WindEurope says that the effects of the projects could be prevented “by appropriate planning, location and design of wind farms”.
“The impact of wind farms on birds and bats is amazingly low compared to the impact of climate change and other human activities,” he adds.