MAY 04

Protecting wildlife and existing ecosystems is a growing concern as renewable energy projects spread across the country. Environmentalists are often torn between the issues of climate change and conservation.

The Peñascal Wind Farm in Texas, a 202-MW wind farm that lies right on a heavily-traveled migration path, has found a way to balance both. It has started using powerful radar technology developed for NASA and the Air Force that detects birds flying four miles away and stops the turbines if there is a danger of the birds flying into the blades.

The radar analyzes weather conditions, the birds' altitude, numbers and visibility to determine if the birds will fly in the path of the blades. During inclement weather, birds fly lower than in normal conditions and can become disoriented, which raises the risk of them flying into the turbines. During normal weather, birds usually fly well above the height of the wind farm. Once the birds have passed, the radar system restarts the turbines.

During the fall of 2007, a study showed about 4,000 birds an hour passed over the Peñascal farm, but nationally only about 7,000 birds are killed each year by turbines. The risk to birds posed by wind farms is still low compared to other obstacles during migration, but it will definitely need to be a consideration as more wind farms are built and this radar system seems like a great solution.

via Guardian

Comments (7)

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written by Seth, May 05, 2009

Hank, you might think about taking words that may be difficult to pronounce and break them down phonetically so that someone can figure it out....just a thought. Happy b-day DFTBA

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written by John Rowell, May 05, 2009

Maybe solutions such as this will appease those who use the "bird killer" excuse to oppose wind farms...so in this way it's a good thing.

However, when you consider the relatively tiny number of bird fatalities caused by wind farms ... and then remember that air pollution from dirty coal-burning power plants actually kills far more birds, humans, and other animals in a slow painful manner, it's clear when you do the math that wind farms actually save many more birds.

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The Birds
written by Ray-ray, May 13, 2009

Birds fly into glass buildings every day. We need to have a radar system that will lower buildings underground to avoid any bird strikes.

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What about the bats then
written by Nicola Terry, May 26, 2009

I gather that wind turbines are at least as dangerous to bats as to birds:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7581990.stm
I am not sure if the same solution would apply as bat behaviour is different from birds. However, perhaps the bird detecting radar could be combined with bat scaring radar as mentined in the bbc article.

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Excuses and not Getting the Point
written by David W. Potter, June 20, 2009

Rationalizing mortalities from various sources to justify other sources is a silly grade school distraction: 'oh, this is less than that--oh, boy.' Human activities cause vast mortalities among animals, and picking and choosing comparisons misses the point entirely.

I should think that the same RADAR can detect bats, too, and South Texas is a migratory route for bats, also. If not, a major omission on the part of the developers--but their PR people perhaps handily left it out.

This technology needs to be required for use everywhere windfarms are proposed. Otherwise, bird and bat mortalities will still increase, as more windfarms are built.

The article states the South Texas site recorded 4000 birds per hour, but "...only about 7000..." are killed nationally per year. How much bias can be implied here? Gee, even if only a hundredth of the hourly estimate (~40) were killed per hour, what would the annual rate of mortality be? For one windfarm? And what will be the estimated rate be as more windfarms are built? Intentionally dismissive and misleading reporting is essentially dishonest and has no place.

Despite the apparent benefits here, rooftops are still far better places for turbines, which have demonstrated a vanishingly small rate of mortalities, and PV, and both have the benefit of decentralization. We can do better--we must do better.

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written by Fred, July 08, 2009

Wow these turbines have a lot of impact on birds

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wind farming
written by jayne, July 15, 2009

I have some land in northern Arizona and I am interested in using my land for wind farming. I have tried to contact a few companies regarding this and have had no luck with any responses. I would appreciate if some one would get back with me. I would like to know who I should talk to about wind farming? How i should go about wind farming? What does it take to wind farm? ECT.... I can always be contacted through email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it also if it would be easier you can email me with a phone number and contact name of a person that could help me with my questions.

Thank you,
Jayne

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