Research
Carbon Analysis Studies
Coming soon!
Socio-Economic Study
The Socioeconomic team is conducting preliminary studies within
Sterling and Coke Counties just north of San Angelo, Texas. While
the towns impacted in this area are small in size, this first study
site proves to be an integral part of developing a protocol for
more complex regions. As the project progresses, the study sites
will grow to encompass more complex areas. By the end of the five
years of research, this movement from a more basic region of study
to a more diverse and complex environment will allow the team to
develop a protocol for studying the socioeconomic impacts of the
wind industry not only in Texas but in other regions as well.
The team has developed a cross-sectional study that uses a multi-methodological
approach including surveys, focus groups and secondary data analysis
methods. Surveys will be used with communities in proximity to
wind farms for evaluation of their opinions of wind energy. Focus
groups will be used to gain specific details from specialized individuals,
as well as general public opinions used to enhance our survey questions.
The secondary data analysis method will be used to review government
and wind farm documents about economic and demographic information
in the communities.
Texas A&M will be joining this segment of the study and will
be focusing on two aspects of the economic geography of wind energy
development in Texas: (1) governance and policy changes related
to Texas wind power; (2) economic geography of wind power development.
By implementing semi-structured interviews, they will greatly enhance
the TCU team’s initial findings.
Avian Study
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Click on the image above to watch this video.
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The overarching goal of the bird-bat team is to assess how wind
power can coexist with thriving bird and bat populations. In
addition to investigating direct mortality from the wind facility,
we will also explore issues related to habitat fragmentation and
displacement.
Our first research objective is to develop and test a protocol
for monitoring bird and bat mortality at wind energy facilities
in Texas. We will test our methods at the Wolf Ridge facility
in Cooke County (this facility is in the final stages of construction).
This will involve conducting standardized carcass searches around
wind turbines and counting/characterizing the carcasses that we
find. In
order to estimate mortality, we will need to do searcher efficiency
and scavenger efficiency trials. Although our ultimate goal
is to do a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) study, for practical
reasons we plan on starting at a site currently under construction. Based
on what we learn at Wolf Ridge, we will also work at to-be-determined
sites in Texas and/Oklahoma. It is also possible that our
research could be expanded to other NextEra sites (for example,
in the prairie pothole region).
The second research objective will be to investigate bird and
bat activity on wind facilities and compare it to control sites
nearby. These studies will likely involve point counts (going
out in the field and looking for birds), playbacks (detecting birds
using recordings of their vocalizations), and line transects to
detect the number of breeding birds. We will also use acoustic
monitoring and night vision to look at nocturnal activity patterns.
As the research project develops over the next year or two, we
will most likely want to add additional components to the study. These
could involve using mist nests to capture birds for individual
marking and genetic sampling, the use of radio telemetry studies
to look at movement and dispersal, or the use of marine radar to
look at migration patterns. |
