In the name of climate protection, wind turbines are repeatedly being built in Germany on or even in the forest. The renowned biologist Klaus Richarz explains how dangerous this strategy is in an interview with the star.
Germany has set itself the declared goal of greatly expanding wind power. But the systems are now being built primarily in areas that should be taboo due to species protection: in forests or on their edges. Biologist Klaus Richarz explains why the wind industry should have no place in the forest.
Dr. Richarz, the topic of wind energy in the forest is currently coming into focus due to deforestation in the Reinhardswald in Hesse. You and the German Wildlife Foundation, in which you are involved, strictly reject wind turbines in the forest, why?
Firstly, the forest is of great importance for climate protection – as a CO2 store and as a sponge to bind moisture in the soil, which is important in times of drought. In the case of the Reinhardswald, one argument of wind power advocates was that the forest there already consists of inferior spruce and larch trees or is damaged. But that doesn’t go far enough. If the right trees were planted, such a forest would be climate-resistant in the long term.
And secondly, the forest is enormously important for the protection of species. Among other things, the tree species, their age and their composition play a role. If we tear holes like Swiss cheese, this ecosystem will be damaged or destroyed.
What are the consequences for animal species if you clear areas in the forest and build wind turbines there?
It means that classic forest species are sure to be among the losers. They are either killed, seriously injured, or their habitat is cut up or destroyed.
Critics like you complain that since 2015 more and more wind turbines have been built in or on the forest in Germany – although experts warn against this for reasons of nature conservation. Why are so few listened to these professionals?
This is done for socio-political reasons: everyone wants clean energy, but nobody wants wind turbines on their doorstep. So you leave the settlements and advance into areas that are forested, for example on low mountain ranges. However, the installations in northern Germany on fields and meadows are also problematic for many bird species.
In addition, the newer generation of turbines are very tall and have very large rotors. It used to be impossible to set up wind turbines in the forest, they were too low. Today the turbines are up to 241 meters high and come closer to the treetops. As a result, the airspace above the forest is blocked.
Klaus Richarz
The biologist Dr. Klaus Richarz did his doctorate and researched mammalian behavior at the University of Giessen. After leaving university, he worked full-time in nature conservation from 1980 to 2013 – initially for eleven years in Bavaria as a species protection officer and department head at the Higher Nature Conservation Authority in Munich. From 1991 to 2013 he headed the State Ornithology Center for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland in Frankfurt. He is still active in nature conservation today.
He is particularly concerned with the topics of mammals, birds and their protection. One of his special areas of expertise is bats. Richarz worked on several guidelines on the topic of environmentally friendly use of wind energy. His non-fiction books on the subjects of birds, bats, mammals, nature conservation and experiencing nature have been published in more than ten languages.
What are the implications? And which species suffer particularly?
Birds are not only killed. Wind turbines also have a massive impact on their behavior. For example, the red kite or the black stork use the airspace above the forest for courtship or to demarcate their territory.
New studies also show consequences for bird species that are not initially thought of: For example, it has been shown that in areas with wind turbines, the number of woodpeckers falls by half.
The consequences for bats are serious, and this is now well documented. All 25 bat species are specially protected in this country. They don’t just use the forest for hunting. The Bechstein’s bat, for example, needs a whole roost complex with many caves to survive and reproduce. When trees are felled, their habitat is destroyed or at least damaged. It’s a similar story for the barbastelle bat, which moves into its quarters behind protruding bark on old trees instead of tree cavities.
Keyword bats: There is a very strange phenomenon at wind turbines: Insects collect on them, which in turn attracts bats, which then die there. Please explain.
Insects love it warm, they are attracted to the wind turbines because there is frictional heat. The insects then climb up the towers – where they are hunted by bats. Pipistrelles in particular are attracted and killed in this way by windmills when hunting.
An argument of the proponents of wind turbines in or near the forest is that it doesn’t matter if individual animals die as long as the entire population is not endangered.
Such an argument is legally questionable. There is a deviation from individual protection here, although national and international legislation is based on individual protection, i.e. the protection of the individual animal. It is also not possible to separate the two. Because there is no evidence that killing individual individuals does not have an impact on stocks.
Can you give an example?
A current paper by the Federal Association for Bat Studies shows how great the effects are. A population is understood to be the individuals of a species that can – at least theoretically – meet to reproduce. In the case of species such as the common noctule bat, which are particularly often killed by wind turbines, population drops have been observed. These bats migrate from northern and eastern Europe to and through Germany to the Swiss region on their way from breeding to wintering grounds. In the meantime, however, significantly fewer noctule bats pass through Germany.
And bats are not only killed by wind turbines. The difference in air pressure tears their internal organs, or their blood vessels burst. In addition, these animals have very sensitive hearing, they hunt their prey with ultrasound. If their hearing is destroyed, they can no longer orient themselves or feed.
Although all these consequences for bats and birds in the forest are known, projects such as the wind farm in Reinhardswald are approved. How does that fit together?
I have serious concerns about whether such permits are legally compliant. There are also complaints against it. You also have to ask yourself whether the corresponding mapping was carried out correctly beforehand, i.e. whether all collision-sensitive species that occur there were recorded. I have my doubts.
Can’t modern wind turbines also be shut down when certain species fly past, avoiding collisions?
Wind power operators always pretend that shutdown algorithms are standard, but in practice this is not the case. According to figures from 2019, 75 percent of all systems run without shutdown devices – that’s 22,500 wind turbines. If you extrapolate that ten bats are killed per facility per year, you come to 225,000 dead bats annually. You could retrofit these systems, but it is not done.
So is politics only about – global – climate protection?
Traditionally, a party like the Greens has always been strongly concerned with nature and species conservation. But if you take a closer look at the moment, this is unfortunately no longer the case. Climate protection is at the top of the list. It is not for nothing that our new Federal Economics Minister and Climate Minister Robert Habeck or one of his state secretaries has now demanded that species protection take a back seat to climate protection.
The classic manslaughter argument is that if the climate changes, all species will disappear anyway. That’s why we have to see that we save our climate, then we also save the species. But that is far from the case, so both must be treated equally.
Do you see biodiversity in Germany at risk from the expansion of wind power?
According to the current situation, unfortunately yes. It is true that we must get away from fossil fuels. But we must not casually sacrifice species for it. And we must not think so much in boxes when it comes to the energy transition and should also include solar energy more. In Bavaria, for example, solar energy has been promoted strongly in recent years, which is very positive.