Abstract
The negative impacts of anthropogenic climate change (e.g., global warming, extreme weather events, food insecurity, etc.), are among the driving factors behind the phase-out of fossil fuels and shift to renewable energies that do not emit greenhouse gases, such as wind (Msigwa et al., 2022). Consequently, wind energy is becoming a major component in national (and global) strategies to reduce carbon emissions. Indeed, it is a fast-growing industry as markets for renewable energy production have continued to increase over the past decade. For instance, total global wind power capacity measured 743 Gigawatts in 2020, having doubled since 2014 (REN21). However, wind energy is not free of impact on biodiversity: turbines can have substantial effects on both populations (e.g., displacement of individuals, increased mortality by collision) and on ecosystems (e.g., fragmentation/loss of habitats). In particular their impact on flying vertebrates, such as birds and bats, has been widely documented (Thaxter et al., 2017), but information on insects is also emerging (Voigt, 2021). Indeed, fatalities induced by collisions pose major conservation concern, adding to the existing pressures from other anthropogenic sources. Although mitigating solutions have been proposed across the literature, we lack systematic reviews cataloguing mitigating strategies in a standardised and comprehensive way while also assessing their effectiveness. We will undertake a Rapid Review to provide a set of existing solutions to various impacts of wind technology installations, across scales (i.e., from single turbines to large multi-turbine facilities) on flying vertebrates and invertebrates. Focusing on impacts on species’ populations, this review will summarise and transfer reliable and consolidated information to practitioners, decision-makers, and investment companies alike in terms of what effective solutions exist. In the context of the current green–green dilemma, this should aid in realigning the development of onshore wind farms with current biodiversity issues (Straka et al., 2020)