Across Africa, wind energy offers opportunities to reduce national dependency on fossil fuels, increase energy security, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But what happens when these clean energy production sites cut through the distribution of a threatened species? In South Africa, wind energy farms overlap significantly with the flying patterns of Cape Vultures, and a recent publication* co-authored by EWT scientists quantified the risks posed by wind energy development facilities to Cape Vultures.

Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing forms of renewable energy, but it can result in the direct mortality of birds by collision with turbine blades. Large soaring species like vultures are particularly vulnerable to collisions. Cape Vultures are classified as Vulnerable on the ICUN Red List and are endemic to southern Africa. Using GPS tracking data collected from 68 Cape Vultures over twenty years, and the location of 167 core colonies and five roost sites, scientists could determine how at risk the Cape Vultures were to collisions with wind turbines. Complex modelling was done to see how the birds are likely to travel around their environment and determine the potential for collisions. Within this, they could measure how much the vultures overlapped with current wind farms and aimed to expand this to be used when planning future wind energy sites.

The scientists found that the models could accurately predict Cape Vulture movement patterns. The resulting maps produced were also able to quantify how much of a threat wind energy production plants posed to Cape Vulture colonies in South Africa. The results of this work can assist wind energy stakeholders in identifying high-risk areas and planning new developments accordingly. In future, the scientists recommend expanding this work into other regions of Africa to include other threatened vulture species, such as Rüppell’s Vulture in East Africa.

*Cervantes, F., Murgatroyd, M., Allan, D. G., Farwig, N., Kemp, R., Krüger, S., Maude, G., Mendelsohn, J., Rösner, S., Schabo, D.G., Tate, G., Wolter, K., & Amar, A. (2023). A utilisation distribution for the global population of Cape Vultures (Gyps coprotheres) to guide wind energy development. Ecological Applications, e2809. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2809