18 votes

Painting one turbine blade black has shown promise for preventing bird collisions

Posted by skybrian
Tags: energy.renewable, wind power.onshore, usa.wy, wildlife, birds, deaths.animal, bird strikes, studies, author.kylie mohr, source.audubon
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/surprisingly-simple-solution-protect-birds-wind-turbines-gets-its-biggest-test-yet

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Title
A Surprisingly Simple Solution to Protect Birds From Wind Turbines Gets its Biggest Test Yet
Published
May 20 2024
Word count
730 words

4 comments

  1. skybrian
    Link
    From the article: ...

    From the article:

    This summer, PacifiCorp, which owns [a wind farm in Wyoming], aims to finish painting one blade on each of 36 turbines there. Over the next several years the company and its partners, including the federal government, will keep track of how many eagles and other daytime-flying birds those turbines kill compared to their previous toll and to the remaining 100 or so that have not been painted.

    ...

    There’s good reason for optimism. In 2003 the National Renewable Energy Laboratory published results from a lab study of American Kestrels suggesting that painting a single blade black could protect birds by cutting down on motion smear. The report recommended that scientists test the idea in the field. A team in Norway answered that call and published a paper in 2020 showing a 72 percent reduction in avian fatalities at a small wind farm on the island of Smøla. “That really lit things on fire,” says Robb Diehl, leader of the Wyoming project’s science team and an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

    Encouraging as it was, the Norway study had limits. It mainly involved birds that fly during the day, but many collisions happen at night, when a black blade may not stand out. It was also quite small, with just four painted turbines out of eight. Efforts to gauge how many birds a paint job may help are happening around the world, from South Africa to the Netherlands. Diehl believes the Wyoming project is the largest.

    7 votes
  2. [3]
    ChingShih
    Link
    I'm real curious about how this works. For humans, black can stand out more than the night sky, which is why military aircraft sometimes use an off-black instead. But I wonder what birds see? And...

    many collisions happen at night, when a black blade may not stand out.

    I'm real curious about how this works. For humans, black can stand out more than the night sky, which is why military aircraft sometimes use an off-black instead. But I wonder what birds see? And it's only 1/3 blades that aren't really even moving that fast.

    I'm under the impression they can see some UV/IR that we can't, and something allows them to "see" electromagnetic waves as well. Would radiating heat (IR emissions) from the blade help deter birds? Also, I thought that birds must see at a higher "frame rate" than humans (a quick search says ~120-168, but is that true?), so hearing about the motion smear is interesting. I wonder how all that works together in their brains to compile an image.

    Edit: this article actually answers my motion smear question. So I guess they aren't getting enough data to infer an implied motion and therefore speed over time.

    3 votes
    1. skybrian
      Link Parent
      This will depend on the species. There are some birds that fly at night (owls, obviously) but eagles are diurnal. I wonder which species get hit the most at night?

      This will depend on the species. There are some birds that fly at night (owls, obviously) but eagles are diurnal. I wonder which species get hit the most at night?

      2 votes
    2. updawg
      Link Parent
      Without having any specialized knowledge, it feels like painting different stripes on each one might help? I get that they're probably trying to avoid using bright colors to keep them from being...

      Without having any specialized knowledge, it feels like painting different stripes on each one might help? I get that they're probably trying to avoid using bright colors to keep them from being eyesores, but it feels like a white blade with a red slash could work?

      2 votes