US developer Altamont Winds has shuttered its wind farms in the Altamount Pass in California amid concerns over bird deaths.
The move comes three years earlier than expected.
“We have decided to permanently shut down and cease operations of 100% of our wind turbines that comprise our 83MW Altamont wind farms, as of 1 November 2015,” Altamont VP Bill Damon said in a letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
Alameda County board of supervisors in May approved an extension to October 2018 for the operating permits for the projects. The estimated 828 turbines have been blamed for thousands of bird deaths since operations began in the early 1980s.
The developer decided to discontinue operations now to “reduce avian impacts”.
FWS spokesperson Jody Holzworth said: “The FWS is very supportive of renewable energy and we would like to work with companies to minimize wildlife deaths.”
Three other wind farm operators in the region have committed to repower their projects with modern, higher capacity turbines.
Altamont, an affiliate of PowerWorks, earlier this year completed an exchange of 290 turbines with NextEra Energy Resources “to disentangle shared turbine assets” where the two companies operated machines on common properties.
The swap allowed NextEra to rebuild the 86MW Golden Hills wind farm, part of the Florida-based developer’s repowering initiative in the Altamont, in which 1475 older, less efficient turbines are being replaced with 82 new, high-efficiency turbines.
Image: Altamont Pass wind farm in California (Wikimedia Commons)
