In terms of raw numbers, total bird deaths from wind turbines are dwarfed by deaths from other hazards, such as cats, collisions with buildings, pesticides and vehicles.
But it is the deaths of raptors, such as the wedge-tailed eagle, which have been the greatest cause for concern.
Identiflight, developed by Boulder Imaging, has been installed at two wind farms in Tasmania and has reduced eagle deaths over the last 12-18 months to zero.
And even better, it comes with almost no loss in revenue for the wind farm.
It uses machine vision and AI to detect any birds that are flying towards the wind farm. Within seven seconds it determines whether it is a protected bird species and temporarily shuts down any wind turbines that present a risk to the bird.
The shutdowns are minimal however and total curtailments now amount to less than 1%. The team has found that eagle activity has actually increased since the start of construction.
Over five years, the team have gathered a vast array of data - 700,000 eagle tracks, more than 20 million eagle photos and more than 5 million photos of other species of birds.
Next steps are to broaden the tech to include other endangered bird species as well as bats, and expand into mainland Australia, where over 500 units have been proposed across 35 new projects.
Another argument from the anti-wind brigade bites the dust.
Credit to Renew Economy, link to article:
https://reneweconomy.com.au/wind-farm-bird-protection-tech-a-success-with-no-new-eagle-deaths-and-barely-a-dent-in-revenue/
