A high-tech study “changes our understanding of how seabirds behave around offshore wind farms”, claimed developer Vattenfall after two years of monitoring showed no collisions with turbines and tracked birds taking evasive action.
A €3m ($3.2m) study using AI-assisted radar and 3D camera technology at Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWC) off Aberdeen showed no bird strikes on its 11 turbines from around 10,000 videos.
The technology – which Vattenfall said was used to track birds’ interaction with offshore wind for the first time in the study – also revealed almost all the creatures adjusting their flight path to stay clear of the turbines from as far as 150 metres out, with those that came closest flying parallel to the blades to keep safe.
