Wind: Impact on nature

Very low carbon, but birds, bats and landscapes pay

What this tab covers What taking energy from this source does to land, water, air and climate, wildlife and ecosystems, with life-cycle emissions and land use where measured.

Wind has among the lowest life-cycle emissions of any electricity source, about 11 to 12 g CO2e/kWh (IPCC AR5 medians; NREL harmonised median 11). Its main effects are bird and bat deaths, landscape and noise, and the large spaced-out land area of wind farms.

Life-cycle emissions 11 (onshore), 12 (offshore) g CO2e/kWh¹¹ Life-cycle, IPCC AR5 medians; ranges 7.0-56 onshore and 8.0-35 offshore. NREL LCA harmonisation (Dolan and Heath 2012) gives a median of 11 for utility-scale wind (12 before harmonisation). UNECE 2021 regional values 7.8-16 onshore and 12-23 offshore. Land use about 130 (direct footprint); about 12,000 (including spacing) ha per TWh per year¹²

Effects on nature

Area	Effect	Size	How it is reduced
Climate	Emissions come from steel, concrete and composite manufacture and installation.¹⁵	UNECE 2021 regional values: 7.8-16 g CO2e/kWh onshore, 12-23 offshore (IPCC AR5 medians in the GHG box).	Low-carbon steel and concrete; longer turbine lives.
Climate (harmonised)	NREL re-ran published wind life-cycle studies on common assumptions.¹⁷	Harmonised median 11 g CO2e/kWh (12 before harmonisation).	Larger turbines with higher capacity factors spread the embodied emissions over more output.
Birds	Collisions with rotating blades.¹³	140,000 to 328,000 birds a year (mean 234,000) at monopole turbines in the contiguous US; mortality rises with hub height.	Avoid migration routes and sensitive habitat; shutdown on demand when birds approach.
Bats	Collisions and pressure injuries, mainly on low-wind nights in late summer.¹⁴	Raising the turbine cut-in speed cut nightly bat deaths by 44 to 93% for 1% or less of annual output.	Curtailment at low wind speeds during peak bat activity.
Land	Turbines are spread out, but their direct footprint (pads, roads) is small and farming continues between them.¹²	About 130 ha per TWh per year direct footprint; about 12,000 including spacing.	Co-location with farming; repowering existing sites with larger turbines.

Wind turbines burn no fuel and use almost no water, so most of their footprint comes from manufacture. Over its life a turbine emits around 11 to 12 g CO2e per kWh (IPCC AR5 medians), among the lowest of any electricity source.

The local effects are mostly on wildlife and people. Bird deaths at US turbines are counted in the hundreds of thousands a year and rise with hub height, so siting away from migration routes matters; bats can be protected cheaply by stopping turbines in light winds. Noise, shadow flicker and the visual change to landscapes are the main reasons for local opposition. Blades made of composite materials are hard to recycle and are a growing waste stream.

Sources

Climate Change 2014: Mitigation, Annex III Technology-specific cost and performance parameters (Schlömer et al.), Table A.III.2, p. 1335 IPCC AR5 Working Group III, 2014
What are the land-use intensities of different energy sources? (summary of Lovering et al., PLOS ONE 2022) The Breakthrough Institute, 2022
Estimates of bird collision mortality at wind facilities in the contiguous United States (Loss, Will and Marra, Biological Conservation 168) Smithsonian Research Online, 2013
Altering turbine speed reduces bat mortality at wind-energy facilities (Arnett et al., Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9(4)) Digital Commons, University of South Florida, 2011
Carbon Neutrality in the UNECE Region: Integrated Life-cycle Assessment of Electricity Sources (ECE Energy Series 73) UNECE, 2022
Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Utility-Scale Wind Power: Systematic Review and Harmonization (Dolan and Heath, Journal of Industrial Ecology 16 S1, S136-S154) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2012