A February 3 Baltimore Sun B’More Green blog article reported that Exelon Generation has taken several actions to reduce bat and bird deaths at a wind project site in Western Maryland.  The actions have been approved by federal wildlife officials.

Exelon Generation, which owns and operates the 28-turbine Criterion wind project built in 2010 in Garrett County, has pledged to “feather” or reduce the rotation speed of its turbines’ blades during nighttime from late summer to early fall, peak bat migration time. The company also has agreed to install a protective gate over a bat cave in a neighboring state as mitigation for its turbines possibly killing one or more Indiana bats.   …

Exelon also has taken steps to reduce bird deaths at its Backbone Mountain project, once deemed to have one of the highest avian mortality rates of any wind farm in the country.