Legal update: Public consultation launched for the draft Royal Decree for the protection of birds against electrocution by high-voltage power lines and wind turbines

The draft Royal Decree establishing measures for the protection of birds against collision and electrocution on high-voltage power lines and for the prevention of mortality on wind turbines (Draft Royal Decree) was published on the website of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge on 12 March 2025. The public consultation process for submissions will be open until 12 April 2025.

The Draft Royal Decree aims to update and repeal current Royal Decree 1432/2008, of 29 August, which establishes measures for the protection of birds against collision and electrocution by high-voltage power lines. However, its scope of application is much  broader, since Royal Decree 1432/2008 was only applicable to overhead high-voltage power lines with bare conductors located in the protection zones defined by each autonomous region, while the Draft Royal Decree also applies to: i)  power lines located outside those areas where electrocution has been verified by an agent of the authority; ii)  to newly constructed power lines or lines whose construction project has not been approved when the Draft Royal Decree enters into force, as well as to extensions or modifications of existing overhead high-voltage power lines; iii) and wind farms that are authorised after its entry into effect, and even to those that have already been authorised (with regard to the provisions relating to the monitoring of mortality and the adaptive management of wind farms as a result -  art.11).

Among other things, it should be noted that the Draft Royal Decree establishes prevention measures against (i) electrocution according to the category of high-voltage power line (distinguishing between those belonging to the  transmission network and, in the remainder, according to voltage level); (ii) collision with overhead high-voltage power lines, with the mandatory implementation of bird-protection devices or visual signals, except for ground-level power lines when the diameter of the line itself, or taken together with an attached fiber optic or similar cable, is not less than 20 mm; and (iii) to reduce collisions at wind farms.

Wind farms measures

In relation to wind farms that are authorised in the future, the Draft Royal Decree (article 10) requires that they include:

• wind turbine shutdown mechanisms should situations arise where there is a risk of bird collision, whether that be an automatic system or via on-site observation; and
• scheduled shutdowns to reduce bat mortality.

Furthermore, applicable to all wind farms (both those that are already authorised and those authorised after the new regulation enters into force) the Draft Royal Decree establishes that a register will be kept to monitor the mortality of wildlife as a result of collision and barotrauma. For that purpose, the Draft Royal Decree attaches an Annex containing Protocols for wind turbines that cause wildlife mortality (it is already being attached by the General State Administration as an Annex to Environmental Impact Statements and, as such, will ultimately be applied across the board). The Protocols should be applied as soon as mortality attributable to collisions with wind turbines has been identified involving bird and bat species included in the List of Specially Protected Wildlife, all without prejudice to the mandatory application of additional protection measures if the collision thresholds detailed in the Protocol are exceeded.

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