And as Gordon and others have pointed out, after predator animals the next big threats to birds are loss of habitat and climate change.
Air pollution is a bigger cause of death for birds than wind turbines - emissions from deliberate burning of fossil fuels, emissions from bushfires, etc do literally make birds ill and/or dead, and unable to produce the next generation of birds.
Another killer is flying into buildings, especially buildings with windows in positions that reflect the sky or the sun. But mankind hasnât stoppped erecting buildings for offices, factories or homes.
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often crops up when someone does not get paid for having turbines on their land (maybe their landâs location is unsuitable - in a flight path, not in a wind path, etc) but their neighbour does have turbines on their land (and gets paid for it).
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A bit of background on wind turbine sickness:
And a cherry-picking exercise from Michael Moore:
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A follow-up from Ketan Joshi:
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I think you are advocating the utilization of wind to produce electricity, but I canât quite work out what your issue is.
I didnât know there were many residential scale wind energy turbines proposed in Australia. Would you have links to articles on any of them?
This list shows wind turbines are built all over the world. China installs many turbines at home, I wonder what proportion of those we import come from China. Why do you think that could be a problem?
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I believe these are the wind turbines referred to:
http://www.resau.com.au/introducing-the-worlds-first-silent-wind-turbine/
Most of the information about them seems to be around 5-10 years old. There doesnât seem to be any information whether these small scale turbines are available or how successful trials of the prototypes were. The company which developed them seems to still exist, but they are not selling marketing these particular turbines (the only information about them is the above link).
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I found some dated reviews and a couple of more recent brief references in online sites that appear to be promotion of the product. Perhaps the most concise commentary.
Another not too reliable source suggested $136k for the 20kW version at around the same date. Note it stands 21m tall.
In a practical sense even the 5kW version would be expected to scale at more than $50k which is not all that competitive with a solar PV system of similar capacity. Assuming you have a suitable windy site that can operate at high power for at least 20-30% of the year. For wind in particular the variability would likely require both a large storage system and secondary generating capacity to smooth out and fill in the gaps.
For everyday residential urban sites there are height restrictions and amenity requirements that would likely prevent approval. 8.5m for our council. Even in rural zones the limit is 12m with set backs of up to 50m required depending on location.
The high suggested cost of this particular example may explain why it is not an everyday residential solution, despite a commercial prototype being available for 8+ years.
P.S.
@phb note your link is not to RESA (Renewable Energy Solutions Australia) but a general web marketing site with similar ID providing links to various products.
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Small âresidentialâ size wind turbines are almost never a good alternative to the same dollar investment in PV panels. The wind resource where most people live just is not good enough to generate enough energy to ever pay for the investment. Also, the chances of getting wind turbines of any sort approved in residential areas by local councils is close to zero.
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I suspect you are right, possible where skies are grey and wind is strong in a remote area it might be economical, western Tassie maybe?
Western Tassie, especially on land, the wind doesnât blow all the time here either. In the west, it is heavily vegetated and also has significant topographic features all which will affect wind flows near the ground.
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Yes, but not everyoneâs idea of a great place to live.
Cape Denison might be a good choice, close to the water, ocean views, and not much solar for half the year.
I donât think there are many places where the wind blows all the time. Tassie west shows as a very windy area on wind atlasses (due to the Roaring Forties). As always local topography matters.
An article regarding Audi Australia announcing that it will source all the energy it uses from renewable sources, mainly from wind generation, by 2021.
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Another article regarding wind generation in Australia.
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Now what will denialists complain about? 
Oh, theyâll think of something.
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An older topic with a newer focus, domestic wind turbines.
This product looks a bit more than twice the cost of an equivalent solar system but in âsunny [and windy] Melbourneâ it could make as much or more sense than more solar panels than a minimum. There are not many installs in Australia but many around the world. In lieu of batteries it might be that they cover the night time and inclement weather periods for much less cost, even if not as reliable being dependant on prevailing winds.
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The opportunities for small scale wind generation such as residential rooftop can appeal. Itâs a more complex decision compared to solar PV. The outputs are location dependant in addition to being highly variable. IE The potential is different for every individual site.
The rated output of the 1.5m rotor diameter SkyWind product requires a wind speed of 14-16m/s (50-58kph). Itâs similar in characteristic performance to wind turbines of the same output and size.
The BOM offers resources that may be useful for guidance in assessing typical wind speeds by general location. For anyone curious about utilising wind power the following is an interesting read. Note at wind speeds more typical of the everyday wind turbines produce only a fraction of their rated output. âhttps://sear.unisq.edu.au/43108/13/Regan_D_Bowtell_Redacted.pdf
For grid connected homes the connection of wind generation requires approval the same as other forms of generation EG Solar PV. For those looking to wind generation and lucky enough to have a high wind location, battery storage to manage variability is another cost to consider.
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In urban residential areas, many councils also require either development and/or building approval for small scale domestic wind generators. This isnât the case for most solar installations, unless they are oversized or in special areas (e.g. on a heritage listed place). A major consideration for assessment is noise, as some smaller generators can produce significant noise during their operation. This can cause noise nuisance. Engineering advice on the structure the wind generator is attached to will also be needed. In some areas visual amenity is also a consideration.
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Small wind turbine generators (WTGs) are not an economic option for 99% of people for various reasons.
Most importantly, the wind speed required for the rated output almost never occurs (ie <<1% of the time) in most inhabited areas. For them to be useful, you have to live in an unpleasantly windy area.
In towns and cities it is unlikely youâd be able to get council approval to erect a tower, and turbulence is very high.
Most of the small wind turbines are sold with towers that are nowhere near tall enough to escape turbulence from trees and other ground obstacles. Turbulence creates high stress on the turbine, and also increases noise.
In most areas you will get much more energy from the same expenditure on PV panels.
Iâve used various WTGs over the last 30 years, including building my own that produced over 1kW in ~35km/hr wind, carving the 3 .6m diameter blades out of plywood, on a 21m steel tower.
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