Birds are not dumb, turns out.
Critics say wind turbines endanger birds but two new studies have now analysed the risk in more detail. What they have found could change the debate.
Two recent studies have re-examined the risk of birds entering in collision with rotor blades of wind turbines.
The energy company Vattenfall and the tech company Spoor have analysed the extent to which wind turbines endanger birds at the offshore wind farm in Aberdeen.
Over a period of 19 months – from June 2023 to December 2024 – video recordings of a wind turbine were made with the help of AI-supported analyses. A total of 2,007 bird flight paths near the monitored turbine were examined.
“By combining AI-powered detection and detailed expert analysis, we can replace assumptions with concrete observations and measure actual behaviour in the immediate vicinity of wind turbines,” says Ask Helseth, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Spoor.
The study found that there was not a single collision, “The results from Aberdeen Bay show that modern offshore wind farms can be operated with low risk to wildlife,” says Dr Eva Julius-Philipp, Director Environment and Sustainability BU Wind at Vattenfall.
A study by the German Offshore Wind Energy Association (BWO) also shows that migratory birds almost completely avoid wind turbines.
For one and a half years, researchers analysed over four million bird movements with the help of radar and AI-based cameras. The result showed that over 99.8 per cent of migratory birds reliably avoided the wind turbines.
“The new study shows that migratory birds avoid wind turbines. This confirms that the environmentally friendly expansion of offshore wind energy works in harmony with these birds and not against them,” says BWO Managing Director Stefan Thimm.
“We used state-of-the-art methods. AI-controlled stereo cameras determined the flight activity in the rotor area, while a specialised bird radar recorded the migration patterns. By comparing the two data sets, we were able to precisely calculate avoidance rates,” says Dr Jorg Welcker, Head of Research and Development at BioConsult SH GmbH & Co.
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Matches the non-peer reviewed findings of George Greene, a farmer and former chair of Isabella (Michigan) County Commission, who has two turbines on his land.
He showed me his bird watching lens in the tool shed behind his house, describing how, in the event of road killed deer near his house, he would drag carcasses out in his field to feed and observe behavior of eagles.
He told me they kept an eye on the turbines. “I don’t know if they respect it, as something they shouldn’t fly near, ….know it’s not somethin’ they should get near, or what it is – but they don’t fly near it.” he said.
It’s a lot easier for a bird to avoid a nuclear power plant.