Abstract
Klondike III Wind Project (Project), located in Sherman County, Oregon is a wind-powered electric generating plant with peak generating capacity of not more than 375 MW. It was developed and is operated by Klondike Wind Power III LLC (Iberdrola Renewables, originally PPM Energy) of Portland, Oregon. There are two phases, referred to simply as Klondike III (Phase 1) and Klondike IIIa (Phase 2), both permitted by the State of Oregon through the Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSC) process. Klondike Wind Power III LLC received a Site Certificate from the EFSC through the Oregon Department of Energy on June 30, 2006 and a Site Certificate for Klondike IIIa on November 16, 2007. Klondike III Phase 1 was commissioned and operational in October, 2007 and consists of 125 turbines. Phase 2 consists of 51, 1.5 MW turbines. The MW listed is a nameplate capacity and does not reflect actual production. Of the 125 Phase 1 turbines, 80 are GE 1.5 MW turbines, 44 are Siemens 2.3 MW and there is one Mitsubishi 2.4 MW turbine. During construction however, one Siemens turbine collapsed and was not returned to service until February 2009. Additionally, the single Mitsubishi turbine was constructed and went operational in March 2008. 124 turbines were used in the fatality estimate calculations for consistency with and according to the Klondike III Wind Project Wildlife Monitoring and Mitigation Plan dated November 16, 2007: ―For the 124 turbines built as of October 2007, the certificate holder shall conduct fatality monitoring for two years‖. Wildlife monitoring is required for each phase. Phase 1 is the subject of this final wildlife monitoring report. The results of year one of the two-year study were previously submitted (Gritski et al. 2009a).
This final report summarizes methods and results of the two-year avian and bat monitoring study for the Klondike III Wind Project (Phase 1) since the Project was constructed in October 2007 including:
- Wildlife fatality monitoring including reporting of all casualties found, results of Carcass Removal and Searcher Efficiency Trials, and estimated fatalities per MW in eight categories (7 avian, 1 bat) as well as 4 primary groups, as described in the Klondike III Wind Project Wildlife Monitoring and Mitigation Plan (WMMP, pages A-5 and A-10) filed under the EFSC Site Certificate (OEFSC, 2007).
- Raptor nest monitoring surveys in 2008
- Post-construction avian use surveys, 2007–2009
Wildlife fatality monitoring results include all casualties found at the Project from October 15, 2007 through October 28, 2009, including all incidental finds, casualties found during the initial ―clean-up search‖ conducted from October 15–30, 2007, and casualties found during the first four seasons of formal monitoring conducted from winter season 2007–2008 through fall season 2009. Monitoring year 1 (or year 1) is defined as the period from October 15, 2007 through October 29, 2008; monitoring year 2 (or year 2) is defined as the period from October 20, 2008 through October 28, 2009. Previously unidentified or unconfirmed specimens were examined after the end of the first and second years of monitoring to determine species where possible. If it was not possible to identify to species, the fatality was classified to genus or taxonomic group based on available evidence. Wildlife fatality estimates included in this report were summarized from data collected during the two-year monitoring study. Preliminary results of the first year of wildlife fatality monitoring, post-construction avian use surveys, and raptor nest surveys were previously reported in Gritski et al., 2009a; however, results presented in this final wildlife fatality report supersede all previously reported information.