Sustainable development of green energy-automated bird protection at wind farms

Abstract

Green energy facilitates the sustainable development of modern society. To meet the increasing demand for wind energy, however, wind turbines are installed in more and more challenging locations, often close to the natural environment of birds. Rotating at high speed, the blades of wind turbines are hardly visible to avifauna, leading to numerous collisions and fatalities. This poses a question as to whether the most recent technological achievements can be relied on to reduce the impact of man-made structures on birds. The presented research tests the potential use of the automated Bird Protection System (BPS) developed by Bioseco for collision risk mitigation at wind farms. The BPS was installed and tested in a real environment, at a wind turbine in northern Poland. The performed validation showed that at a distance of up to 300 m the BPS performs at least as well as a skilled ornithologist and large bird species are successfully detected from over 600 m.