Like most everyone, Cris Hein thought all bats were vampire bats. That was 25 years ago, before NREL’s lead environmental scientist began researching the world’s only flying mammal.
Cris Hein got his Ph.D. studying bats. Now he researches how to protect them from interacting with wind turbines. In this photo, Hein secures a transmitter to the back of a Seminole bat during his Ph.D. research. Photo by Cris Hein, NREL We hung upside down with Hein to learn a little more about him and bats—just in time for Bat Appreciation Day, which was April 17. There are lots of reasons. Most of the bats that we have in the United States eat insects, and a lot of those insects are agricultural or forest pests. And so, bats are important to our ecosystem by keeping insect populations under control. Studies have shown that in the U.S. alone, bats save farmers billions of dollars in pest control every year.
My job is so varied. We research land-based and offshore wind energy environmental issues, and we fund others to do research. We consider how to best site a facility so that it still captures wind energy but also reduces interactions with wildlife.