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A roe deer walks in the vicinity of a wind farm.
- Over twelve months, the company used 46 camera traps to record the movements of fauna in six facilities in Galicia and another six in Ávila.
Wind farms do not alter the lives of wild mammals that live in the countryside. This is the conclusion of a scientific study using camera traps that was carried out by Endesa over a period of twelve months at its facilities in Galicia and Ávila. Wildlife exists in the same quantity and follows the same habits in the wind farms as in the surrounding environment, as has been shown after monitoring by experts from outside the company.
The study carried out by Endesa—the first of its kind to be carried out in Spain—is significant both for the knowledge it provides and for its uniqueness, since attention to fauna in wind farm environments usually focuses only on birds and bats. During the first four months, the biologists surveyed all of the eighteen wind farms that Endesa manages in Galicia through its renewable energy subsidiary, Enel Green Power Spain. In Ávila, data was collected at six wind farms over a period of twelve months.
Using the information collected in Galicia, the specialists selected the six wind farms that were most representative of the different habitats in the community: Barbanza (Pobra do Caramiñal and Porto do Son), Capelada (Cedeira, Cariño and Ortigueira), Coto Teixido (As Pontes), Faladoira (As Pontes and Mañón), Leboreiro (Muras) and Touriñán (Aranga and Monfero). At these facilities, they continued collecting information during the twelve months of the campaign, which ran between February 2019 and January 2020.
In Ávila, the monitoring was carried out over twelve months, between August 2019 and August 2020, at six wind farms: Aldeavieja (Santa María del Cubillo), Altos de Cartagena (Las Navas del Marqués), Navazuelo (Las Navas del Marqués), Valdihuelo (Urraca Miguel), Lanchal (San Juan de la Nava) and Pucheruelo (San Juan de la Nava).
The field work consisted of obtaining photographic evidence of the presence of mammals in different parts of the wind farms that the biologists had identified as suitable areas for feeding, reproduction or shelter for fauna. For this purpose, they placed 46 cameras, of three different models, that were triggered by means of motion sensors. The devices were checked and the data downloaded every month.
Image captured by one of the cameras activated by sensors installed in the surroundings of a wind farm.
The wind farm in Galicia where the most numerous and diverse fauna was recorded was Touriñán, in Aranga and Monfero, where 129 photographs were taken, of which 9 were of wolves, 34 of foxes, 3 of stone martens, 2 of badgers, 42 of roe deer, 19 of deer, 15 of wild boar, 1 of a weasel, 3 of hares and 1 of a field mouse.
In Ávila, the Navazuelo wind farm is the one with the greatest presence and variety of fauna, because it has the most rugged habitat. The following animals were photographed: foxes (82), wild boar (25), roe deer (12), wildcats (10), stone martens (7), dormice (7), wild boar (5), badgers (4), genets (1) and deer (1).
These images, together with other information obtained in the field work, led the team of environmentalists mobilised by Enel Green Power Spain to conclude that “the community of mammals present in the wind farms studied does not differ from that existing in the surrounding environment”. They also pointed out that “the diversity of the fauna in the wind farms depends in the first place on the diversity and degree of conservation of the habitats” at each wind farm.
The researchers emphasise that mammals do not feel conditioned by their proximity to wind infrastructure or by their operation. So much so that “specimens of wolf, fox, roe deer or hare have been detected in the closest proximity (from 0 to 50 metres) to the wind turbines when at maximum performance”.
Through Enel Green Power Spain, Endesa currently manages more than 7,477.5 MW of renewable capacity in Spain. Of this figure, 4,669 MW comes from conventional hydraulic generation. The rest, 2,808.5 MW, comes from wind (2,377 MW), solar (352 MW), mini-hydro (79 MW) and other renewable sources (0.5 MW).
Within the Enel Group, Enel Green Power is dedicated to renewable energy development and operation worldwide, with a presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Enel Green Power is a global leader in the green energy sector with an installed capacity of over 46.4 GW in a generation mix that includes wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower, and it is at the forefront of integrating innovative technologies into renewable energy plants.