Earth Equity News

Wind Farms Put Pressure on Bats. By Richard Black, BBC, August 27, 2008. "Bats are at risk from wind turbines, researchers have found, because the rotating blades produce a change in air pressure that can kill the mammals. Canadian scientists examined bats found dead at a wind farm, and concluded that most had internal injuries consistent with sudden loss of air pressure. Bats use echo-location to avoid hitting the blades but cannot detect the sharp pressure changes around the turbine... The pressure around a rotating turbine blade is lower than in the surrounding air. A bat flying into the low-pressure zone finds its lungs suddenly expanding, bursting capillaries in the surrounding tissue which then becomes flooded with blood. Birds, which have more rigid and robust lungs, do not undergo the same trauma from a sudden drop in pressure... The new research is reported in the journal Current Biology."