June 26, 2006
Which way the wind blows | Woodlot Alternatives finds a brisk business assessing the environmental impact of wind farms
By Jonathan Swartz
Wind energy has had its share of doubters over the years, but the environmental consultants at Woodlot Alternatives Inc. in Topsham were not among them. For the past decade, while wind power was growing in fits and starts and trying to become competitive with other energy sources, Woodlot teams have scaled remote ridgelines to analyze how proposed wind farms will affect the ecosystems around them. They've set up experimental radar above the treetops, shone powerful flashlights into the night sky to count birds, searched for rare plant species on the forest floor and attached tiny tracking devices to bats.
The work has positioned Woodlot at the cutting edge of a market that is rapidly growing. Spurred by tax incentives and high fuel prices, wind energy output in the United States jumped by more than 35% last year, and the amount is expected to increase even more in 2006, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Wind, suddenly, is one of the fastest growing energy sectors in the country. "A lot of things have happened in the last three decades that have all come together now for wind power," says Woodlot Alternatives' general manager George Kendrick. "We've felt a lot of reassurance here that we were on the right track."
Woodlot Alternatives, which has steadily expanded its environmental consulting services since its founding in 1987, officially created a wind division last year, hiring ten employees and investing $350,000 in equipment. One of its specialties, mapping the movement of migratory birds and bats over proposed wind farm sites, is in high demand from developers trying to move dozens of projects through the regulatory process: All its radar units and field teams are booked for fall and spring migration studies this year at 16 proposed wind power sites from West Virginia to northern Maine.
To date, the company has completed studies at 38 sites, including the proposed wind farms at Redington Mountain and Mars Hill in Maine. "They're among the most active in the country and experience is important for what they do," says Dave Rapaport, vice president of East Haven Windfarm in Vermont, which recently hired Woodlot.
The key to gaining that reputation, says Kendrick, is the company's focus on field biology to gather important data. Forty-four of its 52 employees are biologists or other environmental scientists, making Woodlot one of the largest private employers of wildlife biologists in the east, Kendrick says. That expertise comes in handy when tracking the small bats and migratory songbirds that concern environmentalists and regulators assessing wind projects.
As a result, wind energy is one of the firm's biggest project areas, along with consulting for large environmental restoration projects such as the PCB cleanup of the Housatonic River in western Massachusetts. Individual projects in either discipline typically generate revenues in the range of $100,000-$500,000, says Kendrick.
Wind power's sudden growth, however, has created controversy, particularly in relation to the potential environmental impact of what has been touted as a "green" energy source. That puts Woodlot's scientists at the heart of a heated political debate ˆ a fact that the company, no stranger to controversial projects, tries to ignore, says Kendrick. Still, he admits the wind energy boom is even more intense than other market shifts Woodlot has been a part of. "It's moved very fast into the social framework," he says. "Even though it's been part of the landscape for many years in Europe, wind energy is probably the newest, most fast-moving and arguably the most visible energy source we've seen in this country."
Trapping lemmings, counting birds
Woodlot's involvement over a 12-year period with the controversial Redington Mountain Wind Farm near Stratton illustrates the range of research the firm performs for wind developers and state regulators. Endless Energy Co. of Yarmouth first hired Woodlot in 1993 for ecological surveys of the area around Redington and Black Nubble mountains, where it plans to install 29 wind generators on 260-foot towers. Using aerial photography, geographic information system studies and ground inspections, Woodlot biologists mapped habitats in the area and studied breeding bird populations on the ridgelines.
The next year, Woodlot narrowed the focus to look for specific species that might be of particular concern to regulators and discovered northern bog lemmings in small traps it had set ˆ one of the first sightings of the species in Maine. Woodlot quickly alerted the developer and the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife that a threatened species had been found, says wind division manager Robert Roy. "We've definitely found that it's better to be as proactive as possible sharing that sort of information," Roy says. "In the end it works out best for the clients and for the regulators."
To minimize impact on the lemmings, Woodlot worked with Endless Energy to reposition several proposed turbines. Then, concerns arose among regulators in the late 1990s that wind turbines could kill large numbers of birds. Previous surveys had detected the presence of the rare Bicknell's thrush in the area, so Endless Energy commissioned Woodlot again for a bird migration study in the fall of 2002 and a spring migration study performed in 2004.
Woodlot trucked in more than 1,000 pounds of equipment to the remote location to measure nighttime avian traffic. The company mounted a high-resolution radar unit, adapted from marine technology, on a platform above the scrub pines to collect crucial flight elevation and direction data. Biologists also used sensitive, solar-powered microphones planted in trees to capture bird calls. Finally, biologists used visual observations: They counted birds passing through a column of light, aimed a telescope at the full moon to count passing silhouettes and used night vision equipment to spot low-flying birds.
The results of those surveys ˆ conducted over nearly 40 nights ˆ indicated complex migration patterns among other species. In the end, Kendrick says, Woodlot concluded that most migrating birds stayed below the ridgelines and therefore had little risk of being struck by the turbines.
Bats ˆ particularly the endangered Indiana bat ˆ are the latest environmental issue confronting the wind industry, and Woodlot came back to Redington in 2005 to do bat surveys. In addition to radar and visual techniques, Woodlot biologists use digital echolocation detectors ˆ which record the high-frequency noises bats emit ˆ to help differentiate bats from birds. Biologists also capture bats in mist nets and examine them up close to determine one species from another. Woodlot even attaches tiny telemetry chips to bats to track their flight patterns around proposed wind sites. "They're doing some pretty cool science and, you know, it isn't always pretty out there in the woods," says Endless Energy's Harley Lee.
Investing in wind
Although Woodlot Alternatives has been performing wind farm studies for more than a decade, creating a separate wind division last year "made a world of sense from a logistical perspective," says Kendrick. Before creating the division, Woodlot pulled together teams for wind farm studies from other departments, especially its ecological services division, which has a preponderance of wildlife biologists. Now, with 14 full-time employees in the wind division and seasonal technicians such as graduate students on call, the company can commit to multiple clients well in advance.
The company also needed duplicate equipment to handle studies for multiple clients during the annual migration periods. So last year, Woodlot bought about ten more digital radar units at $20,000 each, and increased its inventory of bat detectors, telemetry units, trucks and ATVs, spending a total of $350,000.
It was a big expense, but with hundreds of wind projects proposed nationwide, Kendrick says the company is confident there will be demand for its services. Maine, for example, has at least 110 megawatts of wind power generation in the proposal phase, and only 0.1 MW installed, according to the American Wind Energy Association. And the United States posted the world's biggest gains in wind energy output in 2005, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. "Things seem to be moving in the United States," says James Manwell, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in Amherst.
But Manwell predicts "a big shakeout" among wind developers, as smaller companies that recently jumped into the market drop their proposals due to costs involved in getting wind farms approved. Kendrick says consolidation shouldn't hurt Woodlot Alternatives, though, because it has relationships with large and small companies.
As the wind development market shifts, the environmental focus is shifting as well ˆ with bats taking center stage. Studies at wind farms in West Virginia and Pennsylvania have uncovered numerous dead bats, and companies like Woodlot are now trying to understand the danger. Still, Manwell believes that concerns about the impact on birds and bats is overblown. "There's a lot of hype and scare," he says. "People say unbelievable things about turbines and most of it isn't true."
Jody Jones, a Maine Audubon Society wildlife ecologist, however, believes the ecological threats of wind farms are real. She cited the emerging concerns over bat kills, a lack of post-construction wildlife reviews at wind farms in the east and the height of the newest turbines ˆ over 400 feet in many cases ˆ as reasons for caution. "There's a great deal of uncertainty surrounding wind power development in the East," she says. "We want to move cautiously and not repeat the mistakes of the past."
Kendrick agrees that conservation groups and regulatory agencies will continue to require strong bird and bat data for wind development proposals. But the company has already consulted on several controversial projects, so its role as the middleman between developers, regulators and the public is nothing new, says president and founder John Lortie. "We collect unbiased scientific information," he says.
Still, Woodlot executives say wind developers tend to be willing to discuss alterations, such as moving turbines away from ground species or bird flight paths, when environmental concerns arise. And Lortie says he's noticed a shift in developers' attitudes toward the kind of environmental research ˆ and project planning assistance ˆ his firm's biologists can provide. "In the 1980s, developers did everything and then hired an environmental consultant. Now, the consultant is brought in at the outset," he says. "It's gone from reactive to proactive, which is how you would want it."
The work has positioned Woodlot at the cutting edge of a market that is rapidly growing. Spurred by tax incentives and high fuel prices, wind energy output in the United States jumped by more than 35% last year, and the amount is expected to increase even more in 2006, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Wind, suddenly, is one of the fastest growing energy sectors in the country. "A lot of things have happened in the last three decades that have all come together now for wind power," says Woodlot Alternatives' general manager George Kendrick. "We've felt a lot of reassurance here that we were on the right track."
Woodlot Alternatives, which has steadily expanded its environmental consulting services since its founding in 1987, officially created a wind division last year, hiring ten employees and investing $350,000 in equipment. One of its specialties, mapping the movement of migratory birds and bats over proposed wind farm sites, is in high demand from developers trying to move dozens of projects through the regulatory process: All its radar units and field teams are booked for fall and spring migration studies this year at 16 proposed wind power sites from West Virginia to northern Maine.
To date, the company has completed studies at 38 sites, including the proposed wind farms at Redington Mountain and Mars Hill in Maine. "They're among the most active in the country and experience is important for what they do," says Dave Rapaport, vice president of East Haven Windfarm in Vermont, which recently hired Woodlot.
The key to gaining that reputation, says Kendrick, is the company's focus on field biology to gather important data. Forty-four of its 52 employees are biologists or other environmental scientists, making Woodlot one of the largest private employers of wildlife biologists in the east, Kendrick says. That expertise comes in handy when tracking the small bats and migratory songbirds that concern environmentalists and regulators assessing wind projects.
As a result, wind energy is one of the firm's biggest project areas, along with consulting for large environmental restoration projects such as the PCB cleanup of the Housatonic River in western Massachusetts. Individual projects in either discipline typically generate revenues in the range of $100,000-$500,000, says Kendrick.
Wind power's sudden growth, however, has created controversy, particularly in relation to the potential environmental impact of what has been touted as a "green" energy source. That puts Woodlot's scientists at the heart of a heated political debate ˆ a fact that the company, no stranger to controversial projects, tries to ignore, says Kendrick. Still, he admits the wind energy boom is even more intense than other market shifts Woodlot has been a part of. "It's moved very fast into the social framework," he says. "Even though it's been part of the landscape for many years in Europe, wind energy is probably the newest, most fast-moving and arguably the most visible energy source we've seen in this country."
Trapping lemmings, counting birds
Woodlot's involvement over a 12-year period with the controversial Redington Mountain Wind Farm near Stratton illustrates the range of research the firm performs for wind developers and state regulators. Endless Energy Co. of Yarmouth first hired Woodlot in 1993 for ecological surveys of the area around Redington and Black Nubble mountains, where it plans to install 29 wind generators on 260-foot towers. Using aerial photography, geographic information system studies and ground inspections, Woodlot biologists mapped habitats in the area and studied breeding bird populations on the ridgelines.
The next year, Woodlot narrowed the focus to look for specific species that might be of particular concern to regulators and discovered northern bog lemmings in small traps it had set ˆ one of the first sightings of the species in Maine. Woodlot quickly alerted the developer and the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife that a threatened species had been found, says wind division manager Robert Roy. "We've definitely found that it's better to be as proactive as possible sharing that sort of information," Roy says. "In the end it works out best for the clients and for the regulators."
To minimize impact on the lemmings, Woodlot worked with Endless Energy to reposition several proposed turbines. Then, concerns arose among regulators in the late 1990s that wind turbines could kill large numbers of birds. Previous surveys had detected the presence of the rare Bicknell's thrush in the area, so Endless Energy commissioned Woodlot again for a bird migration study in the fall of 2002 and a spring migration study performed in 2004.
Woodlot trucked in more than 1,000 pounds of equipment to the remote location to measure nighttime avian traffic. The company mounted a high-resolution radar unit, adapted from marine technology, on a platform above the scrub pines to collect crucial flight elevation and direction data. Biologists also used sensitive, solar-powered microphones planted in trees to capture bird calls. Finally, biologists used visual observations: They counted birds passing through a column of light, aimed a telescope at the full moon to count passing silhouettes and used night vision equipment to spot low-flying birds.
The results of those surveys ˆ conducted over nearly 40 nights ˆ indicated complex migration patterns among other species. In the end, Kendrick says, Woodlot concluded that most migrating birds stayed below the ridgelines and therefore had little risk of being struck by the turbines.
Bats ˆ particularly the endangered Indiana bat ˆ are the latest environmental issue confronting the wind industry, and Woodlot came back to Redington in 2005 to do bat surveys. In addition to radar and visual techniques, Woodlot biologists use digital echolocation detectors ˆ which record the high-frequency noises bats emit ˆ to help differentiate bats from birds. Biologists also capture bats in mist nets and examine them up close to determine one species from another. Woodlot even attaches tiny telemetry chips to bats to track their flight patterns around proposed wind sites. "They're doing some pretty cool science and, you know, it isn't always pretty out there in the woods," says Endless Energy's Harley Lee.
Investing in wind
Although Woodlot Alternatives has been performing wind farm studies for more than a decade, creating a separate wind division last year "made a world of sense from a logistical perspective," says Kendrick. Before creating the division, Woodlot pulled together teams for wind farm studies from other departments, especially its ecological services division, which has a preponderance of wildlife biologists. Now, with 14 full-time employees in the wind division and seasonal technicians such as graduate students on call, the company can commit to multiple clients well in advance.
The company also needed duplicate equipment to handle studies for multiple clients during the annual migration periods. So last year, Woodlot bought about ten more digital radar units at $20,000 each, and increased its inventory of bat detectors, telemetry units, trucks and ATVs, spending a total of $350,000.
It was a big expense, but with hundreds of wind projects proposed nationwide, Kendrick says the company is confident there will be demand for its services. Maine, for example, has at least 110 megawatts of wind power generation in the proposal phase, and only 0.1 MW installed, according to the American Wind Energy Association. And the United States posted the world's biggest gains in wind energy output in 2005, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. "Things seem to be moving in the United States," says James Manwell, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in Amherst.
But Manwell predicts "a big shakeout" among wind developers, as smaller companies that recently jumped into the market drop their proposals due to costs involved in getting wind farms approved. Kendrick says consolidation shouldn't hurt Woodlot Alternatives, though, because it has relationships with large and small companies.
As the wind development market shifts, the environmental focus is shifting as well ˆ with bats taking center stage. Studies at wind farms in West Virginia and Pennsylvania have uncovered numerous dead bats, and companies like Woodlot are now trying to understand the danger. Still, Manwell believes that concerns about the impact on birds and bats is overblown. "There's a lot of hype and scare," he says. "People say unbelievable things about turbines and most of it isn't true."
Jody Jones, a Maine Audubon Society wildlife ecologist, however, believes the ecological threats of wind farms are real. She cited the emerging concerns over bat kills, a lack of post-construction wildlife reviews at wind farms in the east and the height of the newest turbines ˆ over 400 feet in many cases ˆ as reasons for caution. "There's a great deal of uncertainty surrounding wind power development in the East," she says. "We want to move cautiously and not repeat the mistakes of the past."
Kendrick agrees that conservation groups and regulatory agencies will continue to require strong bird and bat data for wind development proposals. But the company has already consulted on several controversial projects, so its role as the middleman between developers, regulators and the public is nothing new, says president and founder John Lortie. "We collect unbiased scientific information," he says.
Still, Woodlot executives say wind developers tend to be willing to discuss alterations, such as moving turbines away from ground species or bird flight paths, when environmental concerns arise. And Lortie says he's noticed a shift in developers' attitudes toward the kind of environmental research ˆ and project planning assistance ˆ his firm's biologists can provide. "In the 1980s, developers did everything and then hired an environmental consultant. Now, the consultant is brought in at the outset," he says. "It's gone from reactive to proactive, which is how you would want it."
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