Wind power versus wildlife: Europe slows expansion

In April 2025, a French court ordered a multi-month shutdown during breeding and migration season of the Bernagues wind farm in the Hérault department, after the death of a golden eagle through collision with a turbine was confirmed.

The operator Energie Renouvelable du Languedoc (ERL) was sentenced to a fine of 200'000 euros. Just two days earlier, the nearby wind farm in Aumelas had also been ordered to cease operations, combined with a fine of 5 million euros against EDF Renewables.

These rulings follow the decision of the Court of Appeal in Nîmes from December 2023, which ordered the complete demolition of the Bernagues wind farm with seven turbines because the building permit had been granted despite inadequate environmental assessment. The wind farm was located in a UNESCO-protected cultural landscape. A study published in Ecological Applications also shows that the annual mortality rate of golden eagles from wind turbines already exceeds the threshold beyond which populations can no longer recover.

In Switzerland, the problem is also documented: In the Bernese Jura, a golden eagle died at a wind turbine in 2022, endangering the entire Jura population.

The true costs: UN report dampens the euphoria

A United Nations report on the total costs of wind energy puts common calculations in a different light. If not only the generation costs at the turbine are considered, but the actual system costs to the socket are included, including grid expansion, storage infrastructure, redispatch and backup capacities, the balance sheet turns out significantly less favorable. In Germany alone, the costs for grid congestion management amounted to around 2.7 billion euros in 2025.

In Switzerland, around 40 large installations produce only 140 GWh of wind power, which corresponds to 0.3 percent of electricity demand. Wind maps prove that Switzerland belongs to the weakest wind areas in Europe. Without wind, turbines produce nothing, no matter how many there are.

BayWa r.e.: When profit hunting ends in crisis

The BayWa r.e. case illustrates the structural problems of the wind power industry exemplarily. The energy subsidiary of Munich-based agricultural and building materials trader BayWa recorded an operating loss of 732 million euros in 2024. The entire group closed with a deficit of 1.6 billion euros. The restructuring plan has a 2.7 billion euro hole.

The business model of developing solar and wind parks with borrowed capital and reselling them worked during the low interest rate phase. Rising interest rates, falling electricity prices and the halt of US subsidies by the Trump administration brought the house of cards down. In March 2026, BayWa r.e. had to significantly lower its earnings forecast again. The case shows: The supposedly green energy transition is in many cases a profit hunt at the expense of the public and nature.

Onshore wind power: A silent massacre of biodiversity

More and more scientific findings prove the devastating effects of wind power on biodiversity. According to a study in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, around one million bats are killed annually by the installations in countries with high wind power density alone. The German Wildlife Foundation estimates the annual losses in Germany at up to 250,000 bats and 12,000 birds of prey.

Bats die not only from direct collision, but also from barotrauma: the pressure difference at the rotor blades causes their lungs to burst. According to NABU, particularly the Common Noctule, Nathusius' pipistrelle and Common pipistrelle die at wind turbines. Since bats only have one to two young per year, such losses can be locally population-threatening.

In Switzerland, an expert from the Bird Observatory found a total of 86 killed birds in just two days in June 2022 at the Gotthard wind farm. A Polish study also proved that a large wind farm creates higher stress levels in deer than the permanent presence of wolves.

France announces the end of onshore wind power expansion

With the PPE3 (Programmation Pluriannuelle de l'Électricité) presented in February 2026, France has initiated an energy policy change of direction. The expansion targets for onshore wind power were corrected to 35 to 40 GW by 2035. The focus now lies on renewing existing installations rather than new construction in areas with strong resistance. Offshore targets were also reduced from 18 to 15 GW.

Already in March 2024, the French Council of State had declared all approval decrees for onshore wind farms illegal in a historic decision, because no environmental assessment had been conducted beforehand. France is instead focusing on building 14 new nuclear power plants by 2050. As of 2025, approximately 9,000 wind turbines are operating in France.

Berlin applies the brakes on wind power

A slowdown is also emerging in Germany, albeit for different reasons. Despite a permitting record of over 3,300 new wind turbines in 2025 with a capacity of 20,765 MW, actual expansion lags behind legal targets. The EEG target of 84 GW by the end of 2026 will likely be significantly missed with currently around 65 GW of installed capacity.

The shift also has geopolitical causes: US President Trump eliminated all tax incentives for renewable energy in July 2025, hitting international project developers hard. The new political constellation in Berlin is unlikely to enforce the unconditional priority of wind power over species protection as consistently as under the previous government.

Flumserberg: Too little wind for the Swiss Alps

In Switzerland, energy company Axpo confirmed the end of the wind power project at Flumserberg in February 2026. After over a year of intensive measurements, it was established: the wind potential falls below the threshold for economically viable operation. The planned six large wind turbines with a height of up to 210 meters would have brought about a massive transformation of the landscape in the alpine high mountain environment and negative impacts on the tourism economy.

The IG Sardona Gegenwind and Freie Landschaft Schweiz welcomed the decision and demanded the immediate termination of another project in St. Margrethenberg. The Flumserberg case exemplarily demonstrates what IG Wild beim Wild has long criticized: Wind maps prove that Switzerland is an area with the weakest winds in all of Europe. The federal government's energy strategy is based on expansion that is simply not feasible at many locations.

Wildlife protection instead of wind power ideology

The seven developments show a clear picture: the political and economic foundation for unconstrained onshore wind power expansion is eroding. Courts increasingly recognize that biodiversity protection must not take a backseat to economic interests. Switzerland, already Europe's laggard in species protection, cannot afford to sacrifice the last refuges of golden eagles, bats, and birds of prey for wind turbines that are economically unviable at most locations.

Forests and forest edges are indispensable habitats for wildlife in our already intensively used cultural landscape. They must be kept absolutely free of wind energy installations for reasons of species and nature conservation. Alternatives such as new-generation nuclear energy and the expansion of photovoltaics on roofs and sealed surfaces offer solutions that deliver electricity without killing wildlife.

Further articles on wildbeimwild.com

• Wind turbines and wildlife: Clean energy in conflict
• French court stops wind power
• Environmental impacts of wind turbines: The dangers of PFAS for wildlife
• Offshore wind farms: Risks to the ecosystem
• Wind power and marine fauna: No harmonious coexistence

Sources

• Court of Appeal Nîmes, ruling from December 2023 on demolition of Bernagues wind farm
• Tribunal Correctionnel, ruling April 2025 on shutdown of Bernagues wind farm (golden eagle collision)
• EDF Renewables, fine of 5 million euros, Aumelas wind farm, April 2025
• Katzner et al., «Impacts of onshore wind energy generation on biodiversity», Nature Reviews Biodiversity
• Voigt, C.C., «Wind turbines without curtailment produce large numbers of bat fatalities», Leibniz-IZW Berlin
• Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung: Study on bird protection areas and wind turbines
• NABU: Bats and wind turbines, collision risk
• PPE3 (Programmation Pluriannuelle de l’Électricité), France, February 2026
• French Council of State, ruling March 8, 2024 on nullification of wind power permits
• BayWa AG, annual report 2024: loss of 1.6 billion euros
• BayWa r.e., earnings forecast reduction, pv magazine, March 11, 2026
• Axpo, press release February 18, 2026: Flumserberg wind farm halted
• Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), wind energy Switzerland
• Federal Network Agency, network congestion management 2025