AI and Optics = Just Adds More Protections to Birds Around Turbines

If you go around as I have and talk to farmers, landowners and local officials about the purported effects of wind turbines on birds, you come away more and more convinced that the problem, such as it is, is way overblown.

Renew Economy (Australia):

Technology being used at two Tasmanian wind farms to avoid bird deaths from turbine blade strikes has drastically reduced wedge-tail eagle fatalities at the project sites, while resulting in an average of just 1 per cent curtailment of generation from turbine shutdowns.

Goldwind Australia’s Medard Boutry says the 144 MW Cattle Hill wind farm in Tasmania’s Central Highlands has not had any fatalities for more than a year and a half, since an upgrade to the project’s aerial monitoring and detection system, called Identiflight.

Identiflight, developed by US outfit company Boulder Imaging, uses machine vision and AI technology to detect, classify and analyse avian activity and – if protected bird species are detected – to temporarily shut down any wind turbines that present a risk to the bird.

Outside of the US, Tasmania was one of the company’s earliest testing grounds, with the a 16-tower system at Cattle Hill first trialled in 2019 and upgraded in the first half of 2023 to address a blind spot discovered during the trials.

A newer version of the technology, IdentiFlight V5, had its global debut at Tasmania’s Musselroe Wind Farm, in collaboration with project owner Woolnorth Renewables.

“Tasmania … was a surprising delight in our business, not only because we were able to have our first sales here, but it proved to be an incredibly fertile ground for which we could perfect our technology and our craft,” Boulder Imaging’s Don Mills told the 7th Annual Tasmanian Energy Development Conference in Devonport last month.

“I just was at Musselroe yesterday. There’s been no fatalities in our first year there.”

Mills, who is Boulder Imaging president and chief operating officer, and a developer of Indentiflight, said it was his fourth time attending the Tasmania conference, but the first time that the event did not attract protesters.

“I was disappointed to see the guy in the eagle suit was not out there this year, because last time I went up to him and I said …can I tell you the story of our technology? And he goes, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Can I buy you a pint?’ He said, ‘No.’ So I kind of gave up.” 

Death and injury caused to birds by wind farms is a common complaint against the technology, although solid figures on this – in particular, in comparison to other energy technologies – are not easy to come by.

A Canadian study in 2013 found that wind turbines did not make the list of the top 10 biggest bird killers nationally, where power line collisions and electrocutions ranked second, and collisions with houses and buildings ranked third.

Nevertheless, in certain spots considered perfect for wind farms, concessions must be made for local populations of bird species, particularly those that need to be protected. And in Tasmania, the preservation of the wedge-tailed eagle is of particular concern.

“At many of these wind sites … these large raptors in particular, you know, with 1.5 metre wingspans and above, they really don’t like to flap their wings – they like to ride the wind, and that’s why they often coexist in sites that have abundant wind energy potential. 

“And so we have to make sure that [our systems don’t go] down,” Mills told the conference. “The durability is critical.”