Wind Project Siting & Environ. Compliance 2018

Sessions Speakers Buzz

POSTER: Winds of Change - Recent Innovations in Wind-Energy Habitat Conservation Plans

20 Mar 18
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Tracks: Bat Policy, Biology, and Permits, Poster Presentation

Endangered Species Act permitting is becoming increasingly important for wind-energy projects in the US due to increasingly risk-averse investors and corporate policies. Over 20 Habitat Conservation Plans to support ESA permitting for wind projects are currently in development. Based on this work, we present several cutting-edge improvements to wind-energy HCPs, trends in HCP development, and the latest challenges. We examine how the new HCP handbook and mitigation policies have influenced wind-energy HCPs (regardless of whether they survive the Trump Administration). We describe advances in monitoring design which tailor plans to suit the specific needs of an HCP and its covered species, and reduce the often burdensome costs of monitoring. We explain the importance of take predictions that provide long-term permit compliance and operational certainty for the project, and discuss innovative statistical methods for creating and evaluating take predictions for compliance certainty.