DECATUR — Endangered bats have created serious challenges for three wind energy developers in northwest Arkansas and are one of the factors that led two of the companies - TradeWind Energy in Benton County and Invergy LLC in Washington County - to halt development of their projects.
Aaron Weigel, a project manager for TradeWind Energy, also cited lower than expected wind speeds, the economic recession andlack of buyers for wind energy as reasons plans for Honeycreek Wind Project north of Gravette were abandoned.
Winds of Change will continue to move forward with its Red Barn Wind Project located between Decatur and Gentry, according to developer Nathan Wilson, but the project has encountered obstacles because of the bats.
Northwest Arkansas is in the Karst Region, a geological term for an area that has caves, sinkholes and losing streams, according to Tommy Inebnit, alternative energy biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The area is home to three types of endangered bats - the Indiana bat, the gray bat and the Ozark big-eared bat, he said.
Even though bats navigate by echolocation, they can be killed when they are struck by the moving blades of the wind turbines, especially during times of high wind when bats have a hard time controlling their flight, according to Inebnit. Bats are also subject to aerotrama caused by areas of low pressure around theblades that implodes their internal organs, he said.
Ozark big-eared bats are the most endangered species, with only about 1,900 individuals left, according to Inebnit. Populations of Indiana bats in the northeastern United States have decreased by 90 percent due to White Nose Syndrome, he said. So far, the disease has not been discovered in Arkansas but studies have suggested that it may become a problem in the future.
Private landowners and companies can develop anything they want, Inebnit explained, but the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service is strongly encouraging the companies to do environmental studies. Withoutstudies showing the wind farms won’t harm endangered species, the companies may not be eligible for any grants or public funding. And if endangered species were killed by the wind turbines, the companies would be breaking the Endangered Species Act, he said.
Inebnit emphasized that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is pro-wind and alternative energy, but said it is important to keep endangered species in mind.
Scientists have a good idea where the three species have hibernacular and maternity caves in the region, but they don’t have any migratory data or information on where the bats are at what time of year, he said. Bats usually have a range of five to 15 miles around their caves.
“If we take a five mileradius around all the caves we know about, they are everywhere,” Inebnit explained.
More studies are needed to establish if the bats are using the proposed sites at different times of the year. They could only inhabit the area of the planned wind farms for one or two months a year. A two-year study is needed to get a complete range of data, he said.
The suggested studies are prohibitively expensive and have no relevance or scientific basis, according to Wilson, who estimated the costs could add up to nearly $400,000 a year. Wilson put up a sound-gathering tower and did a two-month study last summer. His study found a large number of Red and Hoary Bats, which are more common, but none of the endangered species. The results, however, were rejected, he said.
Weigel said TradeWinds Energy did sonar studies that identified bat activity in the area, but did not identify the exact species of bats.
Invergy chose not to do an environmental study, according to David Kampwerth, a cave and karst biologist at the Arkansas Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
TradeWind Energy Honeycreek Wind Project
TradeWind Energy is halting the development of the Honeycreek Wind Project northwest of Gravette because of a combinationof problems, according to project manager Aaron Weigel.
The company had planned to install 100 turbines, generating 150 mega watts of energy, over a five- by eight-mile area. The project would have cost between $200 and $300 million, Weigel said.
TradeWinds Energy had already signed leases with landowners in the proposed area. Those leases will be canceled, he said.
Weigel said TradeWinds Energy put up towers to track wind speeds in the area, began finding landowners to lease property and did environmental studies to gain feedback.
The studies revealed several problems, including mediocre wind speeds and the risk of endangered bats in the area.
Wind speeds were “OK but not excellent”, Weigel said. Northwest Arkansas does have enough wind to sustain a wind farm, but not as much wind as other areas of the country, making the cost of energy slightly higher. He explained that the costs of equipment are the same, but less energy would be produced.
Since there is no demand for wind energy in Arkansas, cost is the only factor to consider, he said.
The recession also played a role in TradeWinds Energy’s decision not to continue with the Honeycreek Wind Project, according to Weigel. It is difficult to develop a multi-million dollar project in a down economy, he explained.
Weigel said there was a very positive response from landowners in northwest Arkansas. With the right policies and an improvement in the economy, Wilson said he was hopeful a wind project may eventually take place in our area.
Winds of Change Red Barn Energy Project
Nathan Wilson, developer of the Red Barn Energy Project, has also run into fears about endangered bats, but said he plans to keep moving forward with the project.
The Red Barn Energy Project, located on 600 acres near the intersection of Y-City Road and Browning Road between Decatur and Gentry, originally included eight wind turbines that would produce 64,000 Megawatt-hours of electricity a year.
While most wind farms are developed by big corporations and foreign investors, Wilson has a different vision for his communitywind farm. He plans for local landowners and investors to reap the profits.
After more than a year of tracking wind speeds with a sonic wind profiler, Wilson said wind speeds were actually 10 to 20 percent better than predicted. Wilson also said he has found a buyer for the energy.
The project is expected to cost a total of $40 million. Wilson had planned to fund the project with $28 million in cash from investors and another $12 million from federal stimulus funds that will run out in December of 2011 if construction has not begun.
Wind projects in a 13-county area known as the Karst Region are not eligible for any grants or federal funding because of the endangered bats, according to Wilson.
“It is worth noting that we can still install turbines and there has never been any interaction with bats from any of the 16 wind turbines installed in the northern 13 counties of Arkansas,” Wilson said.
Wilson has developed several strategies to deal with the problem of endangered bats. After much research, he found a company, Enercon of Germany, that makes turbine blades with a wing-tip device, similar to those commonly seen in airplanes, that doesn’t cause the differences in pressure and reduces the possibility of harming a bat to either nil or an infinitesimally small number, Wilson said.
The company is also decreasing the number of wind turbines by switching to a higher capacity turbine, he said.
There is the possibility of applying for a take permit - like those used by airports when they trap and kill birds - that would allow for a certain number of endangered species to be killed each year, Wilson said.
“It seems like I’m fighting uphill, but that’s OK,” Wilson said.
Invergy LLC
Endangered bats were also a factor that led Invergy LLC to abandon awind project in Washington County near Winslow last fall, according to an article by Laurie Whalen in the October 19 issue of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
The Chicago-based company had already paid fees to several local landowners. The company was in the process of dismantling special wind speed measuring towers last fall and had informed the Washington County planning board that they were no longer exploring wind turbine projects in the area.
By Janelle Jessen [email protected]
News, Pages 2 on 03/30/2011