Read more: environment.newscientist.com Researchers at the University of Calgary have found out why bats have been dying near wind turbines.
Who am I ?
Hi, I’m Erik Astrand and the man behind this site.
My story? I am about to be 50 and all my life I have been interested in technical things. Not sure if the special interest for the wind, and how to use the wind, started when I as a 5 year old boy and got my first sail dinghy.
Anyway, wind power and to build my own wind generator was a dream for several years. I studied many websites and also bought many courses before I finally built my own windmill. This site is about that journey and you will also find some more general articles about wind power.
Enjoy! and check out the about me page to read more.
so now the wind is bad!
Poor bats! Let’s go back to living in the dark so the bats can live!
First off, holding your breath would be the only way for a scuba diver’s lungs to explode as the pressure would be equalized everytime you exhale and inhale. I think the video is referring to “the bends” which has to do with blood and not lung pressure from surfacing too quickly.
Personally I could care less about bats. If they were smart creatures they would just stay away from the turbines, but of course we will probably have some tree huggers complaining about it now.
Low on electricity and having a bit of a bat problem. Well then your in luck!
As someone mentioned before, the first thing that came to my mind too is that they should be installing those infrasound devices now if they want to prevent this from happening..
@travelbytommy : pain in the ass!
There are 3 problems a scuba diver must worry about. Oxygen toxicity can’t be the problem because the bat isn’t under water, and nitrogen narcosis isn’t an issue either for the same reason. As for the bends it deals with a nitrogen gas bubble in the blood stream, not blood in the lungs, and I have been a scuba diver for almost 10 years now, and I have never heard of a single injury or death where someone’s lungs exploded. Sure bats are dying, but it isn’t related to scuba type injuries.
@travelbytommy : ‘pain in the ass’ was for your stupid coment regardless of the bats life! You get it? What the hell is the fuking PB with human beings, so that they think they endlessly disearve to behave like the center of the world and eradicate laughting whatever they wish just to make their fucking ass little more confortable??? This type of irresponsable coments disrespectfull for others life is just typical of modern occidental egotripik pain in the ass blindness. That’s all!
Turbines have flash lightening at night that brings flying insctes in mass near the head of the pole so the bats hunting are driven close to the turning blades. Many simple solutions can be tested : 1-puting the flash light on the turning blades instead of on the pole – might solve the pb but still creates light that atracts insects and bats 2- Puting reflectors instead of lights since airplanes have their own lights and painting the propelers ends in red or fluo; might be the best
3-ultrasound may help but the insects will still be massiv around the pole… not sure it will be enough to keep the bats far
But more widely to this particular pb, may we not forget that : BATS, alike ALL OTHER FORMS OF LIVING, especialy animal ones, ARE SACRED PARTS of an ALIVE, WISEFULL FEED-BACK FULL EQUILIBRIUM that WE, human, are surely PART OF, but NOT the center and CERTAINLY NOT the most important! Sory for huge EGO devotes! We, human beings are invited to participate respetfuly to the global equilibrium of Nature, and NOT TO MESS IT UP FOR THE IRRESPONSABLE SAKE OF OUR WILLS OF CAPRICIOUS CONFORT!
Reflectors won’t work because planes don’t have lights on when flying, just beacons. Also most wind farms have active beacons which only flash when radar determines that airplanes are near, otherwise they are off because all the tree huggers whined about light pollution. I say leave them alone, and eventually the bats will learn not to fly there, or else they die…it has nothing to do with the circle of life or human interaction.
personally I think eco types like whining more than they do fixing problems. They whined for a long time that we need more wind farms as eco-friendly power production, and now that we have a bunch of wind farms they whine that it isn’t eco-friendly. It is the same way eco-terrorist groups use arson to protest urban growth…of course companies get insurance money and cut down more trees to rebuild the same house thereby making their statement even worse. What a bunch of morons.
I also believe the bats will eventually adapt, and stop flying around these. Hopefully this adaptation wont hurt them or the ecosystem in any other way. (I’m not a tree hugger)
ohhh shiiiiiiit
hi &NANE2&, nice video. Friends and Subscribers welcome if you want to have a look at my Home Wind/Solar Energy stuff.
u learn something new erday.
what a load of horse shit.bats have brilliant echo location and can avoid most things ,why would they not be able to locate around a wind turbine?
the real reason for the bat deaths is some simple minded locals that have dislike to progress and dumped some dead bats near the turbines.they with be throwing dead hedgehogs and cute bunnies next saying they are drawn to the hypnotic spin and hum of the turning blades.
@TheLiptonGroup “PRIVATE PROPERTY” is a human EGOTISTICAL invention, not a phenomenon of nature. You and the 8 who gave you thumbs up are ignorant cocksmacks.
Wind and solar are boondoggles. Fusion power is the future. Know why? It’s because you can get fuel for it anywhere in the solar system. That’s why.
@Spartan043
No one has ever achived sustained Fusion, Excluding perhaps Ponds and Fleischman.
You know bats hear better than the rest of us, and I bet someone could attach a device that would make a noize that would warn a bat of the danger or be so anoying the they would just stay away from the blades.
@Manitobah Some Japanese researchers recently managed to get a tokamak to produce more output heat than they were feeding it with for about five minutes. I’d say that’s a step in the right direction, at least. Who knows? Maybe within the next hundred years, we’ll see fusion reactors being used as a practical source of power. My opinion on the matter is that politicians who are wind/solar advocates shouldn’t try to get funding for fusion cut simply because they don’t like the idea.
@shaggyhumphrey They do avoid the turbines, but they can’t detect low pressure pockets.
Personally I think it would be a good idea to start looking at large-scale application of vertical-axis cylindrical turbines instead of these. They can be made on a large enough scale, but are less likely to kill local wildlife.