Related Sites

• Wind Energy in California and Energy Commission Reports on Wind
• California Wind Energy Collaborative
• Western Bat Working Group wind energy page
• American Wind Energy Association
• Federal Wind Turbine Guidelines Advisory Committee
• National Wind Coordinating Committee
• National Renewable Enery Laboratory

California Guidelines for
Reducing Impacts to Birds and Bats from Wind Energy Development

On September 26, 2007, the California Energy Commission approved the voluntary California Guidelines for Reducing Impacts to Birds and Bats from Wind Energy Development. The California Energy Commission, working with the California Department of Fish and Game, developed this document to provide recommendations on methods to assess bird and bat activity at proposed wind energy sites; design pre-permitting and operations monitoring plans; and develop impact avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures. The methods described in the Guidelines are suggestions for local permitting agencies to use at their discretion and as a resource for other parties involved in the permitting process.

Final Guidelines

Download copy of final Guidelines:

California Guidelines for Reducing Impacts to Birds and Bats From Wind Energy Development - Final Commission Report
(Acrobat PDF file, posted October 23, 2007, 165 pages, 6.9 megabytes - Note file size!)

Download copy of final report MINUS Appendix E
(Acrobat PDF file, posted October 23, 2007, 137 pages, 1.2 megabytes)

Frequently Asked Questions

• Frequently Asked Questions about the Guidelines.

Training and Outreach

• Training Information for regional California Department of Fish and Game staff on implementation of the Guidelines.

California Wind Energy Biological Dataset and BIOS Data Submission

The Energy Commission and CDFG encourage data owners to share raw data by participating in CDFG's Biogeographic Information and Observation System (BIOS) program. Contributing data to the California Wind Energy Biological Dataset in BIOS builds a central online repository that will help others make data comparisons among wind energy-related biological datasets and ultimately help inform and improve management decisions. Another benefit of contributing to BIOS is that datasets can be viewed without specialized software and in conjunction with other data layers to accommodate larger planning efforts. Individual data owners may also limit data access to selected groups or individuals, but those submitting data should be careful not to include information that may be considered proprietary or confidential.

Click here to access the California Wind Energy Biological Dataset. This dataset contains a collection of PDF reports from monitoring and research at California wind projects linked to their approximate geographic locations.

To submit bird or bat data and monitoring reports related to wind energy to BIOS, please send electronic data (smaller than 8 megabytes) to biology@energy.state.ca.us.

Data sets larger than 8 MB should be mailed as a Zip filed on a CD to:

Please identify the data as belonging to the "California Wind Energy Biological Dataset" and specify any viewing restrictions (see Submitting Data to BIOS for details).

More Information

For more information regarding the Guidelines, or to provide comments on this document, please contact:

News Media, please call: Media & Public Communications Office - 916-654-4989., E-mail: mediaoffice@energy.state.ca.us