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sensors to monitor the presence of bats in real time. By combining this data with weather conditions and other metrics, it determines the overall risk and stops the turbine only when the risk is high.


“Natural Power can adjust many system elements, including a rule set that triggers curtailment,” says Sutter. “For example, a site with protected species might operate under a rule set that is weighted towards preventing bat fatalities and less focused on energy generation. In contrast, a site without such species may want these resources to be balanced equally.” The company is now conducting a second year of testing with a view to beginning long-term commercial deployment. It has also installed its first commercial system at a wind farm.


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WWT023_DeTect.indd 4 22 ADLS


Other approaches centre around placing birds out of harm’s way – for instance, by re-nesting them away from wind farms. In one study, researchers in Spain tilled the soil around the base of turbines, reducing the amount of vegetation that could grow there and consequently the number of small animals. This made the area less attractive to kestrels seeking prey. A Californian wind energy company, Avangrid Renewables, is looking to offset condor fatalities by financing their breeding. According to the company’s projections, its Manzana plant will likely kill two adult condors and two chicks or eggs over a 30-year-period. Through working with a captive breeding facility, which will raise six condors before releasing them into the wild, the company hopes to mitigate its impacts on this critically endangered population. A 2020 Norwegian study found that painting one of the rotor blades black makes the turbine easier for birds to see. Fatality rates dipped by over 70% during the study period. Meanwhile, a Spanish company called Vortex has gone one better by developing bladeless turbines, harmless to birds and bats, which quiver in the wind. However, as Merriman sees it, the ecological impacts should really be addressed during the siting process, as opposed to being mitigated only once the turbines are installed. “The most important element of minimising the impacts of a wind energy facility is making sure it’s sited in the right location,” he says. “I strongly encourage developers to speak with bird experts before they’ve got a plan in place.” The ABC’s ‘bird-smart wind energy principles’ include a range of best practices, as well as a wind risk assessment map that flags up no-go areas. The ABC also works on policy, and gets involved in the project review and approval process when a facility is proposed somewhere deemed inappropriate. “For example, if we have identified an area as a ferruginous hawk key wintering area, you’ll probably want to go out and do some ferruginous hawk wintering surveys,” says Merriman. “So, we put that information out there to assist developers in finding low risk areas for wind energy facilities.”


The clean energy versus biodiversity conflict (often described as ‘green versus green’) isn’t an easy one to solve. However, if wind energy is developed in the right locations and using the appropriate technologies, there arguably doesn’t need to be a conflict at all. As the technology progresses, developers need to think in terms of ‘both/and’ – both preserving ecosystems and advancing clean energy – rather than ‘either/or’. ●


21/10/2021 15:16 World Wind Technology / www.worldwind-technology.com


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