• News
• A quick guide to seasonal survey timings
• Assessing Ancient Woodlands in Wales
• Autumn/ Winter 2010 newsletter
• Bat surveys: a guide
• Bats at Basing
• Biodiversity is good for business
• Biodiversity monitoring for Scotland
• Breeding bird survey competition winners
• Champagne winners!
• Competition winners
• Continued growth for Thomson Ecology
• Guide to timing of mitigation for protected species
• Helping schools to maximise BREEAM credits
• Offshore wind farms- a haven for marine life....
• Renewables UK conference and exhibition, 2-4 November, Glasgow SECC
• RenewableUK 2011 conference and exhibition
• Spring/ Summer 2011 newsletter
• Spring/Summer 2010 competition winners
• The London River Park
• The Woolley case
• Thomson Ecology acquires Unicomarine
• Thomson Ecology and Environment Systems join forces to provide unrivalled survey capabilities
• Thomson Ecology blossoms and grows
• Thomson Ecology delivers environmental training to Network Rail
• Thomson Ecology surveys wind farm sites
• UK coastline changes to create new mudflats
• Vacancies now filled: arboriculturalist and bat worker
• Visit us at the Offshore Wind Exhibition, Liverpool, June 29-30th
• Winter surveys
• Yorkshire Dales habitat assessment contract awarded to Thomson Ecology

Thomson Ecology surveys wind farm sites

27th January 2010

Thomson Ecology are carrying out wintering bird, bat and other ecological surveys at potential wind farm sites for ERM on behalf of a major utilities company.

The client is one of the UK’s largest consumers of electricity. To help power its operations whilst reducing its carbon footprint, they are developing on-shore wind farms across the UK. The aim is to source a quarter of their total energy requirement from wind power by 2016, thus preventing the release of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 into the environment each year.

ERM is currently identifying sites for them that may be suitable for on-shore wind turbines.

Wind power is the most advanced renewable technology available in terms of large scale power generation. However, despite its clear environmental benefits, there are concerns about the potential ecological impact of wind farms on bird and bat populations. These concerns are triggered by bird and bat fatalities recorded at some wind farm sites in North America and Europe.

It is therefore vitally important to do accurate and thorough ecological surveys early in the site selection and design process to ensure that bird and bat populations are not significantly affected by the development. The wind farms must be located away from major bird and bat migration routes and important feeding, breeding and roosting areas in order to prevent disturbance or damage.

To this end, Thomson Ecology carry out a number of surveys, including wintering bird, nocturnal barn owl and bat surveys. These detailed and accurate surveys help to inform whether or not proposed sites are suitable for wind farm development and, if they are, what ecological considerations will need to be taken into account in their design.

For more details go to wind farm developments or call us on 01483 466000.