FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
Conference on Wind energy and Wildlife impacts
May 2-5 2011, Trondheim, Norway
Energy from renewable sources has become increasingly important as part of energy policies, partly due to climate change scenarios.With the present targets for renewable energy production in many countries, and the huge world potential for windpower generation, wind-power development has become a very important issue from a political, economical and ecological point of view. Ecological impacts of wind-power generation are debated intensively within several fora, and there is a need for a firm knowledge-base on the impacts on wildlife, as well as innovative and efficient mitigation measures.
Norway has long been been a net exporter of renewable energy from hydropower, and is in the forefront of wind energy development. 2010 is the last year of a major research programme on wildlife and wind-power generation in Norway. The programme has focussed on research tools and methodological development, as well as population effects on wildlife (particularly the white-tailed eagle). Much work is in progress on these issues worldwide, and in 2011 we intend to gather colleagues from all over the world to share experiences on how wind-power plants may affect wildlife, and discuss how we should meet the challenges created by the world-wide increased activity in large scale wind-power plant construction.