I've had a few conversations in person with various folks around the wildlabs community, but in general I'm looking at a slight sector-jump from working on biodiversity directly to working on decarbonization/electrification and the power grid.
And when it comes to these issues, wildlife impacts really are something that matters. Not just because people care about conservation in and of itself, but because in many cases demonstrating that mitigation measures are possible or being applied is useful for getting community buy-in in cases where people may be using wildlife concerns as a pretext to oppose energy or transmission development (this is quite common based on conversations i've had with folks in the energy sector).
So far, the projects and tools I'm aware of are:
1. Wildlife Acoustics recently launched their SMART system for bat monitoring at wind farms https://landingpages.wildlifeacoustics.com/smart-system
2. The Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative has used acoustic monitoring and various light-based diverters to track and minimize bird impacts on their transmission lines
3. A number of systems have been developed to use RADAR to monitor bird activity near wind farms and automatically slow or shut down turbines if birds get too close: https://www.robinradar.com/bird-control-radar-system-wind-farm, and https://detect-inc.com/wind-energy-bird-bat-radars/ are a couple of examples
4. Camera trapping has been deployed to monitor wildlife on the ground at some wind facilities: https://www.usgs.gov/publications/birds-not-flight-using-camera-traps-observe-ground-use-birds-wind-energy-facility
I'm reaching out to the WL community to see what other case studies you might be aware of.
5 August 2022 8:12am
Hi David,
for all that wind energy we will need lot´s of new power lines to connect source and sink areas.
One example to look at is the Great bustard population living in one of our strongest wind power areas in Central Europe.
LIFE Project 2016-2024 - Great Bustard (en)
Austria (AT) and Hungary (HU) have been very active in Great Bustard conservation in the last years. After two Austrian LIFE and LIFE+ projects and one LIFE project in Hungary now both EU-countries are implementing together a huge cross-border protection project for Great Bustards in Central Europe. Based on the great success of the former measures the objectives of this LIFE project are to continue intensive habitat management efforts, reduce the threat of collision with power lines - for many years the no. 1 mortality factor for Great Bustards - and reduce predation. The LIFE project aims to support and maximise the effectiveness of the cross-border protection in Austria and Hungary through coordination of conservation measures and optimal communication.
Power Lines go underground and lines that can´t be changed get high visibility markers to stop large birds from colliding with them.
Greetings from Austria,
Robin
12 August 2022 3:28am
Interesting thread david. Not specific to renewables but we've deployed sound cannons activated by RADAR to keep birds off tailings ponds to great effect.
Could likely use a similar solution to avoid having to spin down wind turbines in area's where the noise isn't as much of a concern.
Dazzling lasers would also be a good option for getting birds to avoid turbines.
15 August 2022 3:00pm
Adding some links that @CarlosAbrahams sent on Twitter last week, just to avoid having to go back to twitter to find them (Thanks Carlos!!!!)
UK Bat/Wind Report http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&ProjectID=16734&FromSearch=Y&Status=3&Publisher=1&SearchText=wc0753&SortString=ProjectCode&SortOrder=Asc&Paging=10#Description
Automated Wind/Bird monitoring and mitigation system https://dtbird.com/index.php
Nightjar monitoring at a wind farm https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2688-8319.12052
Radar to monitor bird and bats at wind farms https://detect-inc.com/wind-energy-bird-bat-radars/?gclid=CjwKCAjw6MKXBhA5EiwANWLODB9-Tq9k3h3JdMC7bLvVMKMG009HW3HmgVRt5blyv4pocz75L1IARBoCSTMQAvD_BwE
Radar to monitor birds at offshore wind farms https://group.vattenfall.com/uk/newsroom/pressreleases/2019/ornithology-embraces-the-digital-age-as-radars-to-be-deployed-on-ground-breaking-offshore-wind-research
Robin Sandfort
Capreolus e.U.