New Wind Technologies To Protect Wildlife

New deterrent system may help prevent eagle deaths caused by wind turbines

Kale Williams, March 19, 2018 (The Oregonian)

“Researchers at Oregon State University are working on a system [developed with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy that] uses a vibration sensor at the base of the blade, an acoustic sensor on the generator housing and a camera on the base of the tower…[T]he camera will be able to detect when a bird is approaching, determine [the type of bird,] and…the computer would trigger a deterrent in the form of a brightly colored facsimile of a person designed to play into [the bird’s] aversion to human beings…To test the system, [the researchers] used a compressed air launcher to fire tennis balls at wind turbine blades equipped with the sensors…When a strike is detected, video recordings of the moment of impact can be analyzed to determine exactly what hit the blade [to improve the detector’s] success rate…” click here for more

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