I wonder what the boundaries of the "study area" mentioned in the report were. Of the birds mentioned, only the black kite and sea eagle would be likely to be flying at the height of the blades. Black kites are common but the white breasted sea eagle is only seen very very occasionally. Both, though, presumably have the visual acuity and general common sense to avoid the blades.

Lots of pipes to be doing a survey job

By the way, here's a summary of the summary of the full wind turbine report by HK Electric to the Environmental Protection Dept., written by my power generation expert correspondent, much shorter and more concise than the HEC summary:

the turbine will be painted non-reflective light grey to minimize the visual effect, as this colour will blend into the background during periods of medium to low visibility.

Change in the Chinese Wind
By Stephen Leahy

The world's largest wind power project will begin construction this month near Beijing, bringing green energy and cleaner air to the 2008 Summer Olympics and city residents coping with some of the worst air pollution in the world.

The new wind power plant, located 60 miles outside Beijing in Guangting, will generate 400 megawatts per day, nearly doubling the electrical energy China currently obtains from wind. But that's just the beginning. Last summer at a climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, China surprised many by announcing it will generate 12 percent of its energy from renewable sources such as wind by 2020.

Pollution is part of the driving force behind China's newfound passion for green energy, said Yu Jie of Greenpeace China's office in Beijing. "Acid rain blankets 70 percent of the country," Jie said, cutting crop yields, damaging trees and making rivers and lakes too acidic to support fish.

The country's galloping economic growth over the past 20 years has meant enormous increases in electrical power demands, 75 percent of which come from coal. China is the world's largest coal-consuming country and home to 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities on the planet, according to the World Bank. At least 400,000 people in China die each year from air-pollution-related illnesses, the World Bank reports...

..."China's wind power potential is huge -- 500,000, perhaps 600,000 megawatts -- but it needs the proper legal framework," said Corin Millais, executive director of the Brussels-based European Wind Energy Association. The association has contributed input on the Chinese renewable-energy law...

...The new law is expected to be in place by next summer, and if it has the right ingredients, the Chinese landscape will soon blossom with fields of 2- and 3-megawatt wind turbines.