Aug 26, 2020 12:30:00

Accident death rate of birds is reduced by 70% just by 'painting' the turbine of the wind power generator

Wind power generation is attracting worldwide attention as a clean power generation method that does not emit carbon dioxide or nitrogen oxides. However, it has been reported that a bird collides with a turbine and loses its life due to the installation of a huge structure facing the wind flow. To counter this, a team of researchers at the Norwegian National Institute for Natural Sciences said that you can avoid bird collisions by painting the turbine blades with color .

Paint it black: Efficacy of increased wind turbine rotor blade visibility to reduce avian fatalities-May--Ecology and Evolution-Wiley Online Library

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.6592

Bird deaths down 70 percent after painting wind turbine blades | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/black-paint-on-wind-turbines-helps-prevent-bird-massacres/

With increasing interest in renewable energy, the use of wind power is expanding rapidly. However, some politicians are opposed to wind power because it 'causes birds and bats to hit the turbines of wind power generators, affecting local populations.' For example, President Donald Trump has called a wind turbine a ' bird's graveyard .'

According to an estimate by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, about 300,000 birds died in 2015 when they collided with a turbine of a wind power generator. And the death rate of birds due to turbines seems to be decreasing as the number of large, slowly moving turbines increases.

Previous studies have suggested that birds may not be very good at seeing obstacles in flight. Therefore, the idea this time is to color the turbine of the wind power generator to visually appeal the existence of the wind power generator, thereby increasing the probability that the bird will recognize the wind power generator.

A total of 68 wind turbines are installed in the city of

Smella, Norway, which produces 150 megawatts, which is more than half of the wind power generated in Norway. Among them, as a result of regularly inspecting four wind turbines with a height of 70 meters and three turbine blades with a length of 40 meters, from 2006 to 2013, 18 wind turbines including 6 white-tailed eagles were found. It turned out that the bird had died. Also, not only the turbine part, but also the bird that died by colliding with the tower part that is the pillar was found.

Therefore, when the research team of the Norwegian National Institute for Nature painted one of the three blades black and conducted a follow-up survey for 3 years, the number of bird deaths due to the collision with the turbine was reduced to 6 birds. thing. The study group reported that black blading on the turbines reduced the bird mortality rate from collisions by 71.9%, as 18 deaths were confirmed in another 4 wind turbines in the control group. doing.

In addition, it was found that the mortality rate of birds varied seasonally, and although the number of bird deaths was low in spring and autumn, it tended to increase in summer. However, the research team noted that the number of wind power generators studied was small and that the survey period was relatively short, making it worthwhile to conduct longer-term research outside the city of Sumera. There is.