State says southern Vermont wind project no longer needs to track bird, bat mortalities - Vermont Public
Public Utility Commission says Deerfield Wind project no longer needs to track bird, bat mortalities | Vermont Public
State says southern Vermont wind project no longer needs to track bird, bat mortalities
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Associated Press File
State regulators say the owner of a southern Vermont wind project does not have to continue tracking bird and bat deaths around the turbines.
Avangrid Renewables owns the 15-turbine Deerfield Wind project in Searsburg and Readsboro, and the company was required to measure bird and bat deaths as part of its state permit.
After five years of tracking fatalities, the company said the number of carcasses found near the turbines was on the low end of similar projects in the Northeast.
The Public Utility Commission agreed to let the company stop measuring bird and bat mortality after the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources signed off on the 5-year report.
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Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: wind
Decades of government support for the development of wind energy has resulted in lower costs and a rapidly growing share of electricity generated by wind turbines. Wind in 2019 accounted for 7.3 percent of electrical generation, surpassing for the first time hydropower at 7.0 percent.