Australia could save thousands of bats a year with simple tweak to wind turbines, study says

Experts say increasing the wind speed at which turbines begin to spin could help reduce bat deaths. Photograph: Krystle Wright/The Guardian

Australian windfarm operators are being urged to embrace a simple measure used overseas that scientists say could dramatically reduce the number of bats killed by turbines.

Curtailment – lifting the wind speed at which turbines start spinning – is used in some European countries and parts of the US and Canada, but rarely in Australia. A global study published in the journal BioScience found it was an effective way to limit bat deaths.