Abstract
The Vasco Winds area of the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (APWRA), hereafter referred to as Vasco Winds, was repowered in 2011 by Vasco Winds LLC, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources (NextEra). The prior 80MW project in 1985 originally consisted of 800 KCS56 100-KW turbines. In 1992 20 KVS33 400-KW turbines were added. The original project was located near the Los Vaqueros Reservoir (that was not present until construction was initiated in 1994) in southern Contra Costa County. This project was part of the northern aspect of the APWRA. Over time, the number of turbines in the area declined due to attrition, mitigation efforts and removal projects (e.g. building of the current Vasco Road through the original project). In 2011 the 438 remaining wind turbines were removed and replaced by 34 Siemens 2.3MW wind turbines (Table 1). The 78.2 MW repowered project commenced operations in February 2012. On behalf of NextEra, Ventus Environmental Solutions (Ventus) initiated avian and bat fatality and use monitoring in May 2012. The monitoring program consists of site specific avian and bat carcass surveys, searcher detection trials, carcass persistence trials, avian use and behavior surveys, and bat acoustical monitoring. The following report summarizes the preliminary results from the first year of a three year monitoring program.