Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Texas
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Sandia National Laboratories and Texas Tech University have partnered to initiate wind energy research with scaled wind turbines at a Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility. However, a component of permitting for this site is research and monitoring of the local avian community to assess immediate and long-term influences of the facility.

Wind energy is a clean form of energy but the negative influences through direct mortality and/or habitat displacement are not well understood.

We are collaborating with Texas Tech University to conduct this study.

Our research is aimed at assessing direct mortality of volant species due to wind turbines, but also long term trends in occupancy and, for select species, survival and productivity of resident and migrant grassland species.