Flight behaviour of birds in the surrounding of wind turbines and collision protection based on technical mitigation measures

The main goal is the test of technology-based measures for an effective mitigation of bird collisions at wind turbines.

Data on the flight behaviour of birds in general and of individual Red Kites is collected pre- and after the construction of wind turbines using radar, a laser-range finder and GPS-transmitters to compare the use of airspace in both situations. Meteorological parameters (e.g. horizontal and vertical visibility) which are measured on the test site are also included in the analyses. Based on the same data, anti-collision systems are tested, and experiments are carried out to investigate the effectivity of mitigation measures like e.g. the colouring of wind turbines or control of rotor speed.

One of numerous causes of death in birds are collisions at wind turbines. For the mitigation of conflicts, techniques based on demand solutions are wanted to avoid blanket curtailments (e.g. during the whole breeding season of a bird species). The project NatForWINSENT uniquely allows intervening into operation and appearance of wind turbines to conduct systematic experiments. Furthermore, the test site offers an optimal environment for systematic tests of commercial anti-collision systems which promise to be suitable for protection against bird collision.

In phase 1 (pre-construction), data on the current state of local flight movements (habitat use) and of flight parameters (e.g. altitude and speed) depending on weather were investigated. The mean speed of Red Kites was 27.2 km/h (± 12.6 km/h) and increased with flight altitude. The influence of weather was weak. The flight activity decreased with increasing bad weather conditions (rain, fog). Flight altitudes were lower during strong wind/wet conditions compared to weak wind/dry conditions. Two different anti-collision systems were tested (BPS of Bioseco und IdentiFlight^®).

• Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW)
• Freiburger Institut für angewandte Tierökologie
• OekoFor
• UMIT Tirol
• bio-scouting
• Fachbüro für ökologische Planungen

• Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz (BMUV)
• Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN)