Bats matter to our environment as they assist with pollination, pest control and seed dispersion.

In the UK it is an offence to deliberately (or recklessly in Scotland) disturb a bat in a way that would (significantly in Scotland) affect its ability to survive, breed or rear young …. or significantly affect the local distribution or abundance of the species.

Dead bats and birds underneath wind turbines are a common finding and because of scavenging are likely to reflect much higher kill rates. The more turbines the more bat species as a whole are threatened.

In Europe the 2014 Gidelines for bats in wind farm projects states

The most significant impact of operating wind turbines on bats is direct killing (Arnett et al. 2013a), caused due to collision and/or barotrauma Arnett et al. 2008, Baerwald et al. 2008, Grodsky et al. 2011, Rollins et al. 2012). Migrating bats and bats from local sedentary populations are often…