Contents
- Introduction
- What Causes Bird Mortality at Wind Farms?
- Key Considerations for Wind Farms
- Environmental
- Construction
- Operational
- Technology for Reducing Bird Mortality
- Detection and Monitoring Solutions
- Cameras and Radars: Choosing the Correct Solution
- Deterrent Solutions
- Mitigation
- What’s Next for Wind Farms?
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Introduction
Wind farms play an increasingly vital role in global energy production. By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) aims to generate 90% of all electricity from renewable sources – with wind and solar leading the way.
But as important as wind farms are in the fight against climate change, they pose a serious threat to wildlife.
Millions of birds die from collisions with wind turbines every year. And while that's only a fraction of the total that die as a result of accidents involving power lines, pollution, and predation, it raises some important questions:
How do you prevent bird deaths from wind turbines? How do you support the global push for clean energy without harming wildlife in the process?
What Causes Bird Deaths at Wind Farms?
Collisions with wind turbine blades
Habitat loss and population displacement
Poorly sited wind farms and infrastructure
Collisions with wind turbine blades
Habitat loss and population displacement
Poorly sited wind farms and infrastructure
Wind farms have both an immediate and cumulative impact on bird populations.
Direct collisions between birds and wind turbines are the most obvious cause of bird deaths. Rotating blades cause motion smear. This makes them appear as transparent blurs that birds can't perceive, resulting in fatal collisions.
Accidents involving powerlines and other supporting infrastructure also cause thousands of deaths every year, especially if they cross busy migration routes.
The likelihood of a collision depends on various factors, including:
- Species
- Season
- Time of day
- Noise
- Wind speed
- Temperature
It’s not just collisions that affect birds. Wind farms take up a huge amount of space. This can disrupt migration routes, as well as essential feeding, roosting, and breeding sites, harming biodiversity.
Biodiversity loss is a decline in the number, genetic variability, and variety of species of biological communities in an area. It breaks down ecosystems in the wind farm location. This can extend even further in the case of migratory birds.
Key Considerations for Preventing Bird Deaths Wind Farms
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), prevention is the key to protecting birds from wind turbines.
Preventative measures begin at the planning stage, with careful research to fully understand each site and the unique biodiversity and birdlife that surrounds it. However, there are also actions you can take during the construction and operation phases to prevent bird deaths from wind turbines.
Preventative actions are preferable from an economic, social, and ecological perspective for lenders, regulators, and other stakeholders. Compared to avoidance and minimisation, restoration and offset measures tend to have less certainty of success and come at a higher cost to the developer.”
IUCN
Planning
Understanding and mitigating risks to birds begins with a detailed environmental impact assessment (EIA). The better the data your assessment gathers, the easier it is to protect wildlife during the planning phase. That's where tools like bird detection radar really start to shine.
As your constant eye on the sky, bird detection radar helps you identify, track, and manage risks as they emerge during construction and operation.
Considerations:
- Biodiversity
- Bird migration routes
- Seasonal breeding patterns
- Feeding areas
- Sensitive habitats
Construction
Wind farm construction can have a significant impact on bird populations. One Brazilian wind farm reported a decrease in bird diversity from 146 to 115 species during construction.
Bird populations sometimes struggle to recover from the upheaval. To avoid this, consult with experts before construction begins to avoid causing unnecessary disruption to natural bird behaviour.
Considerations:
- Time of construction activities
- Pollution from construction equipment
- Noise pollution
- Soil and vegetation disturbance
- Habitat protection measures
Operation
When your wind farm is fully operational, bird behaviour mustn’t become an afterthought. To prevent bird deaths from wind turbines, it's essential to monitor how your wind farm impacts bird populations over time.
With the right combination of ecological expertise and monitoring technologies, you can build the fullest possible picture of bird behaviour at your wind farm. Over time, you'll gain powerful insights, helping you create more accurate collision risk models and gauge the effectiveness of existing mitigation methods.
Considerations:
- Continuously monitor changes in bird populations and behaviour
- Stay up to date on the latest bird detection, monitoring, and mitigation technology
- Review and update your bird control and wildlife protection strategies
5 Technologies to Reduce Bird Deaths at Wind Farms
Technology helps to minimise the long-term impact of your wind farm on wildlife. With the right mix, you can identify and track every bird that crosses your site – protecting birds from wind turbines without disrupting energy production.
Wind farm bird management technology falls into three categories:
- Detection and monitoring
- Deterrence
- Mitigation
Detection and Monitoring
1. Cameras
Cost-effective and scalable, cameras let you monitor bird activity across your wind farm. This makes them ideal for smaller sites with a limited number of turbines.
Cameras are particularly effective at collision detection. Installing them directly on turbines allows you to record incidents up close and from multiple angles, giving you a clearer understanding of the risk they pose to birds. Advanced camera systems use thermal imaging and infrared to provide reliable detection in low light environments.
However, as a visual imaging tool, cameras need clear line of sight to work effectively. Adverse weather conditions can also affect performance, making them ineffective as a standalone solution.
- Pros
- Suitable for small wind farms
- Cost-effective
- Easy to set up and manage
- Supports collision monitoring and analysis
- Cons
- Limited range
- Requires clear line-of-sight
- Ineffective in adverse weather conditions
2. Radar
Bird detection radars give you a 360° view of your airspace, enabling you to monitor activity and track risks in real time.
Radar has superior range compared to other detection tools. It can also track hundreds of birds simultaneously, providing accurate information on everything from bird size to speed, altitude, and direction. Over time, this data helps you conduct more accurate risk analysis and EIAs.
For large sites with multiple turbines, there's no substitute for specialist wind farm bird radar.
- Pros
- Superior range
- 360° coverage day and night
- Leading accuracy
- Simultaneous target tracking
- High quality data insights for stronger EIAs
- Intuitive reporting tools for detailed strategic analysis
- Integrates seamlessly with automatic turbine shutdown systems
- Cons
- High clutter and heavy rainfall can cause challenges
- Line of sight limitations
- Variable classification capabilities
Deterrence
3. Painting Turbine Blades
You don't necessarily need a high-tech solution to prevent bird deaths from wind turbines.
Building on earlier research conducted in Norway, an Oregon State University study found that painting one of a turbine's blades black reduces bird collisions by 72%.
It works by reducing motion smear – a visual phenomenon that occurs when an object move so fast it appears as a near-invisible blur. Researchers suspect this phenomenon makes it harder for birds to see turbine blades, especially the tips, increasing the chances of collision.
- Pros
- Cost-effective
- Low maintenance
- Long-lasting
- Cons
- Ineffective at night
- Effectiveness not 100% proven
4. Bio-acoustics
Often deployed at airports, bio-acoustic bird control solutions mimic bird calls to divert birds away from turbines. They're more effective than traditional deterrents, like scarecrows, and are a humane way of dispersing birds.
The main drawback of bio-acoustic deterrents is that they rely on human observers or detection systems (like radar) to alert them to hazardous bird activity. This limits their use as a standalone solution.
- Pros
- Humane
- Targets specific bird species
- Doesn't disturb humans
- Cons
- Requires up-to-date bird behavioural data
- Dependent on human observation or detection systems
Mitigation
5. Automatic Turbine Shutdown
Advanced avian radar systems support shutdown on demand (SDOD) plug-ins. These systems integrate with your wind farm's supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, prompting automatic turbine shutdown in response to intense or hazardous bird activity. This includes mass migrations.
Crucially, you can set custom activation thresholds based on a range of factors, including bird number, altitude, and speed. Once it receives a prompt, the SDOD system stops individual or groups of turbines in real-time, allowing safe passage before reactivating them.
Not only does this help to prevent bird deaths at times of high activity, but it also avoids costly 'blanket shutdowns' – minimising harm and maximising production.
- Pros
- Suitable for large and small wind farms
- Customisable shutdown rules minimise downtime
- Integrates seamlessly with other bird control systems
- Cons
- Temporarily halts energy production
- Must be deployed alongside other bird detection and monitoring solutions
Birds and Wind Turbines: Frequently Asked Questions
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There's no silver bullet when it comes to monitoring bird activity at your site. Each system brings unique strengths. Radar provides superior, more accurate coverage than other bird detection systems. However, for monitoring activity directly at or very close to turbines, cameras perform best. For the clearest possible picture, we recommend using a combination of detection and mitigation solutions.
An integrated system provides the collision monitoring of cameras, combined with the real-time detection and tracking capabilities of radar. Deploying them alongside mitigation solutions, like automated shutdown on-demand plug-ins, gives you the best insight into activity across your wind farm. -
This depends on the system. However, the most advanced bird detection radars can track thousands of birds at the same time.
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Radars excel in monitoring and analysing bird activity that can increase collision risk. However, it can't detect or confirm collisions alone. This is because radar sees everything that returns a reflection, including turbines. The closer a bird flies to a turbine, the harder it is for radar to keep track of it.
As such, radar can't recognise collisions because there’s no way to distinguish between a collision or whether a track has been lost in the turbine's reflection.
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No, but radar can give accurate indications of bird species. Advanced radars can provide quality data, such as bird size (via its radar cross section), and flight characteristics, like speed and altitude.
Wind farm operators can calibrate bird detection radar to give recommendations about likely species based on these traits. However, only human observers can categorically confirm species.
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Radar protects birds from wind turbines by accurately detecting, tracking, and logging bird activity around wind farms. The data it collects helps you better understand bird behaviour, allowing you to predict important patterns, like seasonal bird migrations, and adapt operations or introduce appropriate mitigation measures.
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Unfortunately, yes. Wind turbines built along migration routes often interrupt traditional flight paths, leading to potential collisions or alterations to flight routes with detrimental effects.
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Yes, wind turbines present a collision risk to bats. Additionally, air pressure changes around turbine blades can also injure bats. Fortunately, many detection and mitigation systems that work on birds also work on bats.
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Bird radars are a vital data source for EIAs, capturing a wealth of valuable insights into everything from migratory patterns to specific local flight behaviours.
What’s Next for Wind Farms?
Birds are integral to a healthy ecosystem. As predators, they play an important role in keeping pests under control. They're also natural pollinators and even help disperse seeds through their droppings. This makes them a top priority for wind farm stakeholders, developers, and operators looking to reduce environmental impact.
The right combination of bird control policies and technology will ensure you're well-equipped to prevent bird deaths at your wind farm. What works for you may not be the same for other sites. Cameras and painted turbine blades may be enough for small sites. However, large wind farms or wind farms situated in biodiverse areas may need the visibility that only radar provides.
Prevent Bird Deaths at Your Wind Farm
Find out how our bird detection radars deliver the real-time insights you need to protect wildlife and maximise energy production.