A Surprisingly Simple Solution to Protect #Birds From #WindTurbines Gets its Biggest Test Yet
Painting one turbine blade black has shown promise for preventing collisions. Now researchers are seeing if it can work in #Wyoming.
By Kylie Mohr, Summer 2024
"A year ago, a Golden Eagle approaching the Glenrock/Rolling Hills wind farm in Wyoming might have seen a dangerous optical illusion: A turbine’s blades, spinning at more than 150 miles per hour, would appear not as solid objects to be avoided, but as a blur the bird could fly through. Scientists believe this disorienting visual phenomenon, known as motion smear, contributes to the collisions that kill an estimated 140,000 to 679,000 birds per year at #WindFarms in the United States.
"The same eagle soaring over the area’s scrubby sagebrush today will see warning signs. Those once indistinct and innocuous-seeming blurs will present clearly as physical masses, signaling to birds that they should steer clear.
"Such is the hope, anyway, of a study now testing a surprisingly simple tool for making wind farms less hazardous to birds: black paint. This summer, PacifiCorp, which owns the facility, aims to finish painting one blade on each of 36 turbines there. Over the next several years the company and its partners, including the federal government, will keep track of how many eagles and other daytime-flying birds those turbines kill compared to their previous toll and to the remaining 100 or so that have not been painted. Search teams will look for eagle carcasses, while specially trained dogs will sniff out other birds and #bats. 'We’re trying to have as little impact as possible while also trying to provide electricity to customers,' says Jona Whitesides, a spokesperson for PacifiCorp."
Read more:
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/surprisingly-simple-solution-protect-birds-wind-turbines-gets-its-biggest-test-yet
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