And before anyone complains about wind turbines killing pretty little birdies, I should dig up the research showing how many birds are killed by turbines and other man-made causes, and domestic cats. (The cats outnumbered everything by a huge margin! Like several thousand times as many.)
The point is lost on narrow-minded people; the little dinky birds that cats consumes in as you say far greater number don't get sliced and diced but locate a propeller driven hill where a raptor would glide waiting for dinner and it is a different story. Raptor losses is alarming and most raptors are more likely to eat a feral cat than be eaten. Tabby against a red hawk or American eagle doesn't stand much of a chance.
The point is currently there are three major sources of renewable energy and all three require critical review of their location and design before constructing; wind is the most critical and there're ways to design and/or locate wind in almost every case.
Geothermal is limited to location and seldom requires wildlife consideration except where the water after generation is now cool enough to support migratory birds, and for underground sources that don't vent, water in the winter where snow and ice would otherwise preclude wildlife.
Solar only becomes a problem when it becomes so massive it blocks migration and either a corridor or other methods can be done. Environmental concerns are real but wise planning and mitigation can overcome; unfortunately without government subsidies very few if any massive solar projects will be on the planning table in the next few years.
Blue_Max While your digging look at raptors but this isn't the thread to discuss this.
What we really need is a common sense approach to this.
One point to make as an example; in the southwest we use energy for air conditioning in the summer when the suns out and a lot of that 'you need to be able to generate for peak load' argument could be reduced if we used solar air conditioning; realistically there is little or no infrastructure cost to the power company, excess power I generate goes next door to the person with the tile roof and no panels. Since an electrical customer can reduce his summer power bill by over $100 a month for four months each year and lessor amounts the rest of the year, investing $8 to 10K is a return on ones investment of 10 to 15% here in Las Vegas.
If the nimrods who make decisions based on the benefits to the citizens instead the personal benefits bestowed by the wealthier PACs we might be like Europe; sadly we are not.
