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ASR - Avian Safety Research
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| Golden Eagle killed by wind turbine collision. Photo: Brian Latta |
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Wind energy has been the world’s fastest growing source of renewable energy for the past decade, growing by an average of 20% each year. While the use of wind energy has numerous benefits, the negative impact of wind turbines on wildlife remains an unresolved problem for this otherwise clean energy source. A July 2008 report on the avian fatalities at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in California, estimated that its turbines kill approximately 10,000 birds, including an average of 80 golden eagles, each year. On a larger scale, the American Bird Conservancy estimates that U.S. wind turbines kill between 75,000 and 275,000 birds annually.
Despite efforts to solve these collision problems - ranging from eliminating perching structures on turbine towers to visual modifications such as blade painting to the use of auditory cues aversive to birds (designed to annoy and drive them away) - there has been no practical, universal resolution to this important and often overlooked wildlife conservation issue. As the U.S. considers a mandate to make 20% of the nation’s electricity produced by wind energy by 2030, reducing the numbers of fatal and disabling bird collisions with wind turbine blades is imperative.
Our own staff managed and/or conducted many of the wind energy environmental impact studies in California for the past 25 years. Dr. Grainger Hunt carried out long term eagle studies with us at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (APWRA). Dr. Hunt has few peers as a raptor biologist and he brought his considerable field experience to bear on the problem, resolving key practical questions and issues at the outset. Throughout all those years, Janet Linthicum and Brian Latta also conducted, assimilated and reviewed many of the studies at Altamont. Most recently, Brian Latta served as the Principal Investigator for a major initiative assessing the impacts on birds of prey on the Alameda County portion of the APWRA.
With initial funding from The Tides Foundation, Our Research Director, Dr. Alberto Palleroni launched Avian Safety Research (ASR), a multi-year initiative to find a viable solution to this pressing problem. While past attempts at deterring fatal bird strikes have used either visual aids alone or negative acoustic ones, TBG’s project is focused on developing and testing a design modification of wind turbines that would deter birds with sounds that complement their visual and auditory experience of environmental obstacles, and enable them to recognize the turbines as dangerous obstacles.
With the initial research phase of the initiative almost complete, we have now embarked on testing a bird’s ability to recognize an obstacle from auditory cues alone. These testing techniques will allow us to accelerate the development of deterrents and identify the most effective approachs before they are implemented on site.
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| Field Biologists documenting raptor killed by turbine collision. Photo: Brian Latta |
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