The Forum is the most important industry event. Experts invited by the Polish Wind Energy Association stressed that whereas regulation of a general environmental impact assessment procedure is legitimate, the methods and study paths shall be selected by experts on the basis of the specificity of a particular project and its location.

‘The environmental impact assessments shall take the so-called “SSS-specificity” (Site, Species, Season) into account’, Marc Reichenbach, Ph. D., of ARSU GmbH stressed. ‘Instead of a full inventory of all species occurring on a particular area one shall focus on potentially sensitive species and species exposed to negative impact of the installation’.
Site specificity is particularly important when assessing wind farms’ impact on bats. 25 species of these mammals were observed in Poland; however, some of them have very limited range. It is quite obvious that studies that have to be carried out in natural bat habitats, such as vicinity of caves, mines, drifts, forts, underground bunkers (e.g. the Międzyrzecz Fortified Region) are different than in areas where bats are rare.

During discussion the Forum participants stressed the lack of strict cooperation between investors and the administration, in particular in preliminary project development phases. A change to this approach would be beneficial to all parties to the procedure. It is worth stressing that most investors agree on the need to carry out a one-year environmental monitoring.

‘Wind power is the most ecological energy production method we know’, PWEA President, Krzysztof Prasałek, emphasized, ‘and it is obvious that environmental issues are priority to us in the wind farm construction process. We expect a similar approach from institutions responsible for the supervision of environmental studies, to avoid a paradox where “eco-bureaucracy” hinders development of ecological installations used to protect the environment.