[ RadSafe ] World's Biggest Wind Park -Capacity Factor vs. Nuclear

[Susan Gawarecki]

TVA is finding that the wind turbines on Buffalo Mountain are taking a 
larger toll on bats than birds.  I wonder about the effectiveness of 
counting bird and bat bodies each morning (most migration activity takes 
place during the night).  It seems to me that in short order the small 
predators like foxes and raccoons will figure out that snacks drop from 
the sky underneath these turbines and have a lot of them "cleaned up" by 
morning.  This could cause serious underestimates of bird mortality.  
Frankly the estimate of 7.5 birds/turbine/year for the Buffalo Mountain 
wind farm (as cited on the ABC site) seems way too low.

Susan Gawarecki