Blades vs Wings: Wind Turbine Technologies to Save Bats and Birds
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- Are wind turbines indiscriminate bird killers as many news stories and politicians would have us believe, or are they the renewable energy technology that will ultimately save them?
Today I’m going unravel the fact from the fiction to find out whether wind turbines really are a significant danger to birds, and discover which technologies are available to allow them to coexist.
Bookmarks:
00:00 Intro
00:21 Rosie’s a certified bird-nerd
01:01 The big question: Why are wind turbines killing birds?02:10 What about the bats?
02:43 The numbers: How many bats and birds ARE killed by turbines?
03:24 Comparing this to other causes of fatalities
03:59 The most dangerous killer of them all - Climate Change
04:51 Mitigation techniques
06:08 Black turbine blades
07:38 Radar and Sonic Deterrents
09:05 Simpler solutions - slowing or turning off the blades
09:51 Soil tilling and land management
11:08 Outro and thoughts
The Engineering with Rosie team is:
Rosemary Barnes: presenter, producer, writer
Kevin Irman: research, calculations, assistant editor
Javi Diez: editor www.linkedin.com/in/javierdie...
Writing: John Bone
If you would like to help develop the Engineering with Rosie channel, you could consider joining the Patreon community, where there is a chat community (and Patreon-only Discord server) about topics covered in the videos and suggestions for future videos and production quality improvements. / engineeringwithrosie
Or for a one-off contribution you can support by buying a coffee ☕️ here -
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🦜 My energy transition technology company is Pardalote Consulting: www.pardaloteconsulting.com - Наука та технологія
You are living a charmed life with your career, your hobby, and your concerns for our world’s future achieving a perfect synergy. I am envious!
Rosy, you passed quickly over the idea of striped blades, but this would solve the 'black blade' problem in that all blades could be made the same and would behave the same, e.g. with changing temperature. Visually I think it would work, because aircraft propellers have been striped for many years.
Exactly. That's the way I have printed my wind turbines blades and have never had a strike.
@@jimgraham6722 how noisy are your blades?
Also, have you compared with plain blades?
I have thought the same.
Yes, great points, and she didn't mention that the graph of bird deaths was a logarithmic scale, so for people who aren't aware of that (I had to pause the video to check) might think she was greatly exaggerating her figures (of 10x more, etc).
@@alanhat5252 Almost no discernable noise up to 25km/hr, although there is a low hum from the maximum power point three phase inverter with frequency of the hum linked to blade speed.
Above 25 kmh there is a rushing sound, above 40kmh the blades can start to furl, sometimes in heavy gusts this can be associated with flutter, a loud roaring sound.
The three blades are essentially painted black, one has a white painted tip and a second has a white stripe painted mid span. When the blades are turning it presents a strongly assymetric rotating pattern with the white patches dancing back and forth.
The paint I use is a marine rated air cured epoxy. It has proven extremely durable.
Prior to this paint scheme I had a small number of strikes evidenced by dead birds around the base. Since introducing this high contrast, high vis paint scheme about twelve years ago, I have had no strikes at all. As far as I am concerned problem solved
I guess "not all birds are created equal" for news-channels in the sense that:
- a domestic cat snacking on a few hundred pigeons may be mildly frowned upon, but
- a turbine-blade killing a single bald-eagle becomes news-worthy
(I know that 'down under' feral cats cause a lot more damage than just pigeons, but still, these are likely invisible to the media)
To be fair, a domestic cat taking out a bald eagle would probably make the news too... 😉
@@flyball1788 Lol, true. RiP, cat.
A thousand sparrows or pigeons are not worth one endangered eagle, vulture, or crane.
The order of information really flowed well in this video. Great job.
Very interesting and love your show❤. As an ecologist one potential remedy concerned me greatly, tilling of land around turbines as a bird strike reduction strategy. This would essentially destroy habitats which are already usually degraded or deminished on which our wild species depend. Essentially solving the issue by removing target species habitat and food. Also the soil carbon loss i imagine would be colossal, particulate pollution, nutrient loss and soil compaction would be issues. Increasing hugly the ecological, land use and environmental impact of the wind resource. Where applicable though wind infrastructure should be integrated into low nature value intensive agricultural production systems.
A lot of windfarms are sited on arable land anyway, so keeping the soil turned over isn't such an ecological impost (as opposed to ecological compost, which is much more beneficial). .
In the US, most of the wind farms are located east of the Rocky Mountains, where the land is arid and few people live. Some of the land is even sand dunes, blown about due to the winds.
@@zygmuntthecacaokakistocrat6589 no till farming has great ecological benefits
thanks, I was about to write the same comment: tilling large areas around wind turbines, not a great idea for biodiversity and carbon sequestration!
Even if they are planted in agricultural areas, the aim should be to reduce the use of ploughing in any case, to stop destocking carbon and reduce both the use of fertilizers and the nutrient leakage that pollutes water tables.
Also, blade erosion is a problem with wind turbines. Tilling land around turbines would result in more airborne, abrasive particulates, greatly shortening the lifespan of the blades.
Excellent presentation of actual data on this topic. Really interesting to hear about the "paint it black" technique - I noticed a lot of the clips had blades with the stripey option. Now if we could spin them a bit faster and put computer controlled LEDs on.... wind farm pois displays? 😎. Not sure the speed would help the birds though (or the phsysics!) - unless maybe birds can see beyond our range of the EM spectrum? In which case serious study leads to whimsical musings and back to possible ideas I love these videos that start chains of thought....
I wonder if birds may even evolve (natural selection mechanism) and effectively become smarter. But not in a Hitchcockian way - I can hear the conspiracy theories now....
The birds that avoid wind turbines go on to breed so their offspring are more likely to avoid wind turbines.
@@higreentj If they were as "smart" as humans, they'd probably invent "wind turbine slalom" as an extreme sport.... 🤪
The timescales are totally different. Evolution is relatively slow.
@@fredbloggs5902 Nope. Bird populations subjected to significant stress have already evolved significantly within a couple decades (you can search for 'birds evolve to avoid cars', for example).
Another great video from Rosy explaining very well
"Birds usually fly relatively low. Most of the year, they stay under 500 feet. During migration, though, birds gain altitude, and many species fly at 2,000 to 5,000 feet or higher, using prevailing winds to assist them. A bird may begin migration at about 5,000 feet and slowly climb to 20,000 feet."
This depends on weather conditions and species. I think there could be years when migrants fly over the turbines no problem and then another year where it becomes a big massacre
Thanks Rosie, another well done video clearly explaining a complex topic. BTW, I'm a little jealous of your Australian bird life, although I do love my locals. I joined an Australian based bird (bad) photography group and you have some really interesting bird species to observe. Thanks for helping to preserve both yours and ours.
I am so glad you pointed out the wind turbines kill, comparatively, no birds.
I remember hearing a study 1-2 years back where simply putting a blinking red light on top of wind turbines ended up leading to a massive reduction in the amount of bird deaths.
Solution may be even more simple than we think!
It may be that anything that looks like motion at first glance will work. It is likely that if a bird's attention is drawn to the turbine, it will say to its self "I don't know that that is but I think I will go over here instead of nearer it".
Is "amount of bird deaths" the same as count of bird deaths, or is it weighted by their mass or something?
@@b43xoit I've only seen number of individuals stated but I'm not actively hunting for bad stats.
Most wind turbines already have blinking red lights on top of the tower to warn of aviation hazard, just like radio and TV towers.
I lived on an island off the west coast of Wales uk and in one night two wheel barrow loads of little birds flew into the light and died, it was really sad to see the farmer pushing a barrow piled up with tiny little dead birds
What light?
@@UCCLdIk6R5ECGtaGm7oqO-TQ it’s the light house on the island there’s no other light on the island at the time, apologies I forgot to mention that I was a bit annoyed that lots of people slag off turbines and don’t even know about or even think about light houses
Outstanding presentation, Rosie. Your "What are engineers doing" was great. I had heard of painted blade's effectiveness, but not the last 3 on your list. And your inclusion of the distribution of causes properly calls out the many offenders that are orders of magnitude worse than wind turbines. Kudos to you! Keep up the great work!!
Awesome video Rosie. Just subscribed!
I love Australian birds too. I visited back in 2015 and hope to return maybe next year.
Despite doing volunteer work for a conservation organization and going to the Blue Mountains, during my three weeks there, I didn’t see many native mammals at all. Only a fleeting glimpse of kangaroos 🦘 at sunset on the train from Newcastle to Sydney, and fruit bats 🦇 and brush tailed opossums in Sydney’s Royal botanical gardens/domain parks.
However ALL kinds of native bird life everywhere! Including most of the species you listed in pics.
I glad I found you channel. I’m a rather old school environmentalist/conservationist that applies a classic framework for todays most pressing issues of climate change. Which means I view the western environmentalist tradition beginning with Rachel Carson’s silent spring in 1962 which led to the banning of DDT ten years later. Protecting, watching and identifying birds and wildlife are at the center of my environmental commitments, and am honestly put off and turned off by those whose passionate concern over climate change is grounded in an interest in political activism and social justice FIRST instead of a love of nature, the outdoors and protecting endangered species and biodiversity FIRST.
I think you will join the ranks of UA-camrs that include potholer54 that have the power to change the minds of contrarian climate change skeptics and deniers with your engineering expertise.
Pardalotes are great birds, used to have some nesting in an earth bank outside my kitchen window at the time
I'm glad more technologies are being developed. While wind turbines aren't as big of a killer of birds/bats as some outlets would have us believe, we should still mitigate that impact as much as reasonably possible. I wish similar efforts were being made toward the other manmade hazards for birds/bats.
The industry wants to add millions of turbines on land and off shore, do you think that no going to have an effect? NOAA has handed out permits to the wind industry for 20 “takes” this year on marine mammals. A take is a kill , harassment, beaching, ship strikes, or entanglements. East coast wind industry has plans to add more turbines int he path and feeding grounds of the right whale.
Hey Rosie. That was very interesting indeed. I did however find myself raising an eyebrow when you introduced the soil-tilling “solution”. I’m sure I don’t need to point out the degree to which soil tilling causes carbon emissions, not only from the soil but from the diesel burnin in the tilling tilling plant. Creating species-rich, natural habitats, which increase biodiversity in the vicinity of the wind turbines may cause an increase in bird strikes but will also increase the carrying capacity of the ecosystem, potentially offsetting the additional deaths. Even if the land is used for agriculture, leaving bare tilled soils over winter is a sure recipe for soil destruction and productivity decline. As always, these topics are complex and nuanced so the work of your channel and others like it is really important in exploring them fully.
Great work 👍👍👍
Amazing video! Thanks. Yes, the argument with dead birds is quite weird to me, too - nobody seems to care about all the cats roaming around and killing birds, but WIND TURBINES are the killers... Well, sounds like someone is pushing this argument, but what do I know?
Really... Not to mention the automobiles on highways killing far more birds that windmills.
A lie with a kernel of truth spreads better. The purpose is not to save birds, it is to defame the competition that doesn't have fuel costs
@@Markle2k Not to mention the ROI of even a gas fired co-generation plant is about 8 years compared to just 2 years for a windmill. 😉
That would be the entire fossil fuels industry and their employees and stakeholders.
@@howardmarkert8150 Here is a fun fact.... Over 30% of all the electric power consumed in Texas is consumed by the oil and gas industry.
The idea that wind turbines indiscriminately kill birds is ridiculous. Show me just one instance where a wind turbine has killed a penguin.
Lol 🐧
They actually do kill birds. Cats kill more always put a loud bell on your cats collar.
The time when the 4KW Antarctic research station turbine fell over. (This may not have happened and I am imagining it).
@@zygmuntthecacaokakistocrat6589😂
This may be true for penguins but where did all the dodos go?
I didn't know that wind towers were built with no external ladders or anything to perch on to keep birds away, but it makes sense now that you point it out.
I don't think birds are the reason why, just a nice side effect of that design decision.
I suspect the reason is more likely to be to stop engineers getting blown off the ladders.
@@EngineeringwithRosie Okay. Thanks.
Sad to hear that the black blade solution is so hard to implement. It seemed so simple and effective! On the other hand, it is nice to know that there are still lots of effective options. Thanks for another informative video.
Thanks for the great post! The bats deaths will differ according to species. The Mexican Freetailed bat hunts at up to 3300m altitude. The Cape Serotenes in my garden at tree height - up to 10m.
Brilliant video and infomation thanks Rosmary.
One other thing about turbines is their location. When I was working on my wildlife biology degree, one of the grad students was working on the impact of wind turbine sites vs greater prairie chicken (threatened) breeding grounds called Leks. The prime sites for turbines was the very same sites the prairie chickens were using for breeding and showed they would not use those sites. But I agree that cats are a HUGE killer of birds.
Great video again! Thanks for your work ❤
Rosie, thanks for all your informative videos. The statistics on bird kills from other threats is very revealing. I might push back on the approach of plowing the ground, revealing bare chopped up soil as beneficial to the climate. Yes, it reduces bird nesting. The bare earth converts sunlight to heat. Beyond GHG, climate warming occurs when the sum of heat removal (influenced by GHG) is less than the heat gained, aggravated by bare dark soil. Also, chopping the soil reduces organic content (life), reducing water infiltration, retention and increasing CO2 emissions. Wind and water erosion are made worse. Because the organic content is so low, the farmer must rely on Nitrogen fertilizer that is produced with natural gas. I see a bare field as an opportunity to convert to living soil having many cooling benefits to the climate. Likely, the farm practices predate the location of the turbines, therefore not impacted by them. Increasing organic content in our soils is from my analysis the biggest tool we have for combating climate change.
in general this is absolutely true but where the soil is white chalk the specific frequency of heat reflected goes straight out to space with no atmospheric heating.
Thanx a lot for this video. Hugely imortant to see this in perspective!
Awesome video, Rosie. Thanks for clearing this turbine x birds topic. It was very enlightening.
Bird deaths by automobile strikes on highways FAR OUTNUMBER that of windmills.
Excellent and informative video. Thanks Rosie. Really puts things in context which is what we need 😊
Bells on collars for cats.. especially large heavy ones.. 😅
@@Wilki_J there have been studies that say bells around cat's necks causes stress, which causes. I read this many years ago, so the derived data might be different now.
In the UK and probably other countries, we sometimes see lifelike models of predatory birds such as owls or herons, to keep nuisance species away. Could this be used on turbines?
it is, some have models of perching predators on top.
Airports also hire falconers....
There are solutions, just no free solutions.....
Many thanks for putting these issues into perspective Rosie. In Australia, cats and foxes (both introduced species) account for by far the highest mortality rates for birds, small reptiles and small marsupials. Surprisingly little is done to control these invasive pests. When some politicians whine on about turbines causing bird deaths they are just using any excuse to hitch a ride on the climate change denial wagon. The same politicians often oppose environmental regulation for the fossil fuel industry, especially when endangered species may be a risk to a project. Keep up the great work Rosie!
Cats kill small birds, not the large, endangered species like eagles, vultures, and cranes that turbines kill. Nobody cares if a cat kills a sparrow.
Very informative! And that table showing the causes of bird deaths was really eye-opening. Of course it is desirable to limit bird deaths from wind turbines, but the hypocrisy of certain mainstream media in focussing on wind turbines, but not noting the other causes of bird deaths from human activity is really so misleading. I think all articles discussing bird deaths should include that table to inform or remind the reader of the impact of different activities on birds and it’s not just wind turbines practices that could be improved to limit impacts.
Regarding the popularity of bats most Australian micro bats are insectivores. And one of the insects they devour in large numbers is mosquitoes. There was also a study showing improving insectivorous bat habitat next to farmland in Australia showed a significant fall in insect pest numbers too. Surely that’s got to make them more loved. More micro bats: less mozzies!
I've heard predator bird sounds are effective at keeping birds away. I've seen it work on attics. Has anyone tried it with turbines?
I have had a wind turbine for twenty years with no bird strikes. The solution is easy. Paint the blades black with one blade tip painted white and a white stripe half way down a second blade. The moving high contrast spots with an asymmetric pattern alert the birds and keep them safe.
Really informative, thanks
Great to see the data you collected and the methods to reduce bird and bad deaths.
Thanks! This was very helpful, informative, ...and well cited! I'll share these options with colleagues who have been wanting to compliment our existing off-grid energy in a wildlife rich area, summer home to a huge migrating bat colony and many rare birds.
Are you using domestic-scale equipment?
Have you considered caging? There are designs which are easily caged, I'm thinking of roof-ridge squirrel cage designs but I'm sure others could work.
@alanhat5252 Thanks. For wind, we just haven't yet proceeded yet. My colleagues are more directly involved in planning our options. But when I did hear these concerns, I too heard about and suggested the roof-ridge squirrel cage but I didn't hear what other research others had found. We're working with a tight budget so some projects move slow... which isn't necessary a bad thing with edge technologies.
Thank you for your well researched videos!
Rosie, we (not me) have started surveying off shore wind conditions from Taranaki. Very exciting for us across the ditch (although I feel like I'm the only person that knows about it). Maybe something for you to follow...
Great stuff, thank you for this.
A thought on black/white ... would one or more narrow black stripes running lengthwise on all blades be a deterrent and avoid the deformation and stress differentials that you mention?
I am fascinated by wind turbines and never miss an opportunity to view them close up. I have not seen even a single bird carcass at the base or in the area of a wind turbine. On a regular basis however garden birds often fly into my lounge window. BTW, none of them died. They all flew off, apart from one that 3 or 4 goes in succession for some unknown bizarre reason.
Hang flashy stuff in the window. They think the they can fly through.
I remember reading (but not where) that most bird deaths were not from strikes with blades but from entering the wing tip vortices and getting flung about - think Cessna 172 following a B747. If so, would changes to the wing tip reduce vortex formation and perhaps improve the efficiency of the turbine?
Great video as usual. Thanks for keeping us informed.
brilliant video. thanks
How do fruit farmers deter birds? Reflective ribbons, flashing lights, or ultrasonic whistles on the blade tips might help.
thanks rosie really worried about larger birds such as hawks and eagles! keeping cat indoors is really important too we always make sure to do that with our cat!
In order to make a good comparison, it is advisable to also add in how many bats were hurt during the last few oil wars as well
Just found this channel. Thanks for being aspiring. ❤
aspiring or inspiring?
Good show.
Thanks
Would small stretches of black in the blades help? So not painting the whole thing but maybe random small stripes so they could be mixed and matched and not enough to effect the solar heating.
We built a new home and moved in earlier this year. We've had at least 3 birds die due to flying into the windows. They're highly reflective so as to not pass much heat energy into the home and save on heating costs. But that means that the birds think they're flying into blue sky. It's frustrating when our attempts to build efficiently and have a minimal impact on nature backfire.
Very interesting video Rosie. I'm also a bird lover and keen to see clean energy take over from traditional coal & gas. However, with the Vic government announcement of Bass strait opening up to off shore wind farms I've been wondering how Swift Parrots & Orange Bellied Parrots will be effected during migration between Tasmania & the mainland? Is any information known about the route they traditionally fly and if they will be impacted? As you know both species are critically endangered and any added risks should be mitigated in the planning stages.
We make up soo many regulations for wind farms that the bureaucracy and thus cost skyrockets making them nonviable.
Onya, Rosie!
Chockful of technical detail while maintaining an interesting storyline.
Just wondering what the offshore wind farm bird strike situation is. Is there any data on this?
Great video as always.
There was a hopeful study in the north sea that got a lot of press but each location is going to be different so the results of that study can not be easily extrapolated everywhere
since a bunch of birds can see the ultraviolet spectrum, i wonder if it's possible to get the same effect as darkening one of the blades by applying uv reactive materials to the blades instead of black paint, so it looks different to the birds, but doesn't soak up the heat and deform.
A wind farm went up in my area a few years ago and I didn't sign the contract because it prohibited planting trees. I grow fruits, nuts and vegetables, as well as planting areas of my property back to native habitat to help the wildlife. The other farmers in the area were in favor of the wind generators because they raise cattle so they already burn and spray their properties in order to kill the trees and natural habitat because they want to grow grass. From what I see here is that the wind farm is another way they get rewarded for purposely killing the habit and food sources for wildlife. The wind generators make enough noise to be heard for several miles away (even indoors) so wildlife can surely already hear and avoid them if studies claim noise will help birds steer clear of them. Deforestation and crop production in the name of animal agriculture is the #1 cause of wildlife extinction and environmental harm, that's the reason wildlife and pollinators are going extinct here in Kansas and it's also what's happening in Brazil. The current estimate is 100 species go extinct every day now and the leading cause is animal agriculture. Adopting a vegan diet is the single easiest and also the most impactful way that anyone can help wildlife, the environment, and the planet as a whole.
Very interesting 😊👏🏻
Very important video!
Betteridge's Law of Headlines says an unequivocal, "NO!"
Thanks for saving me from wasting 12 minutes of my life, by giving the answer away in the title.
It would be helpful to hear a discussion of the effect on bats’ lungs when they fly through the low pressure wake of a wind turbine.
Excellent logical explanation.
Damage ecology to save environment?
have anyone calculated how many birds are killed by pollution from coalfired electricity that these windfarms eliminates?
Cooling towers at many coal or nuclear power plants kill a lot of birds too. I remember reading an EU report about bird deaths ~20 years ago which attributed significantly more bird deaths to conventional power plants vs wind turbines - even per MW!
@@markmuir7338 I've spent 20 years working at a power station with both parabolic fanless and the louvered with fans towers and have never seen a single dead bird
Not really. But about 1 in 5 premature human deaths can be attributed in part to environmental pollution, I guess the same is true for many other species.
Yes, it has been calculated and measured and verified for years and years. I do not have the numbers memorized, but I can tell you that the number of birds killed by cats that people let go outside absolutely dwarfs the number of birds killed by windmills.
Republicans don't give a flying f about birds. It's just another bullshit thing they say to try and force you to argue against their bullshit instead of fighting against what they're really doing.
I saw a study once which estimated it at about 6.
The issue is that birds which die from the air pollution can die off anywhere whereas birds which die from wind turbines end up right at the base of the turbine.
So it LOOKS like turbines are way more deadly.
Slowing down or even stopping the turbines wouldn't be my first choice, sound can be made somewhat directional, and it doesn't have to be completely undetectable by non-targeted species, i think sound, not only ultrasonic sound is a potential option for deterring any species that can detect sound. The need to deter birds is not unique for wind turbines, there are bird deterrent systems, including sonic. No need to reinvent the wheel, use the knowledge we already have and build on that.
Light can be made more focused. Sound, light, possibly a combination, automatically activated. False positives from a detection system isn't as much of a problem if a few spotlights and speakers are activated as if the turbines are stopped.
Deterring, in combination with not givning birds and bats any specific reason to enter the area. It's usually much easier to deter animals if there's nothing for them there, as it is with an area filled with food.
Also, except for extra vulnerable and important populations, this is not much of an issue in the larger perspective. It's a bit like with batteries, suddenly even persons who normally take pride in being polluting a-holes, and a-holes in general, insinuate that they care about forced labor in mines in DRC. Somehow that intense caring only applies to the mining of cobalt, which usually is a byproduct from copper and nickel mining. And, that caring also only applies to the mining of cobalt used in batteries for purely battery electric cars. Even the cobalt used in hybrids is typically not an issue at all.
We do our bit by keeping our cat indoors. Love your videos!
Now we need a video on how many birds are killed by electrical equipment generally, power stations, buildings and cats. All of which kill way more than wind turbines.
Thanks for the video Rosie. I don't know about other birds but there are green laser light systems that can deter geese.
Thanks Rosie 👍
Thank you for this informative video. One of your sponsors is a company that makes lightening deterrent strips for "things that go fast". If each blade is fitted with such a strip down the blade's center, and it happens to be of a contrasting colour, wouldn't this help "save birds with a single strip" whilst not interfering with the manufacturing process or blade balancing & integrity?
Personally I would add sparkly coloured tassels to each blade tip (like we hang on kids bicycle bars) to not only save birds & bats, but make wind turbines extra pretty & blingy - what's not to love! Perhaps you should hire me as a consultant for creating bespoke wind turbine blades that make them as pretty to look at as they are useful. I have loads of ideas 😁
BTW, didn't NZ make one of their bat species bird of the year? Bats are like platypuses & mushrooms - very difficult to classify under the conventional taxonomy system. If a mammal want to look & act like a bird and a cetacean, perhaps they deserve a taxonomy class all of their own?
What about those little deer whistles they put on car bumpers to keep deer away? You could put them on the blade tips and they would alert the birds to the blades. They have very good hearing. And those are cheap and easy to install. Like $8 each.
You forgot to mention that the low pressure vortex on the trailing edge of the huge blade causes embolisms on the respiratory systems on birds and bats. They may never even get directly struck by the blades.
Ther is a reason I don’t much like cats and am intrigued by the promises of new geothermal. Top video, thanks.
Excellent
Thank you
Thank you.
6:47 Bird manufacturing, gave me a smile. ;)
I only noticed that on the very last watch!
@@EngineeringwithRosie thanks for your always thoughtful and informative videos BTW :)
One misconception needs to be cleared up. The flying animals do not need to actually be hit by the blades to be killed. The blades are wings. They operate by generating low pressure regions that pull the wings around. If an animal fly though this low-pressure region it can be as stressful as being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner. A more nuanced study of what it means to fly may help.
I originally had barotrauma in this video but I found that there seems to be at best a 50:50 split about whether it's actually significant. There were several papers from high quality sources whose research suggested it was a very minor contributor compared to collisions. So that's why I didn't include it.
7:19 what about installing colorful light
it does need to be on the blade nor moving
just pointed on 120 degree cross section of the circle that blades rotates in so there will be always one colorful blade
very interesting
I understood there is another mitigation method, taller turbines, so the lowest point/level of the tips is above the flight levels of most birds (around 30 meters) and bats (15 meters). I heard of one wind farm that during it's resource consent application process (I'm guessing the environmental impact analysis) needed to increase their turbines to a larger size i.e. higher axle, raising the lower tip level above the flight levels.
1:12 "Birds looking down for prey fail to see wind turbine blades"
😵😧 🤔 Is that where the term, 'bird brain' comes from?
🤨
I would be interested in your 2 cents about the Siemens Gamesa problem revelation. :) A topic for a future video?
That's the kind of thing we talk about in the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast that I cohost each week.
On UA-cam: ua-cam.com/play/PLlA1Gp9CHJJdy4xAWSs67jk7NtrABPRWw.html
And other platforms: weatherguardwind.com/wind-turbine-podcast/
My biggest concern is the bloody racket they make ! We have a wind farm half a mile away. On a nice still night, WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Rosie discussed the problems with painting the blade black. The subject was raised that blade temperature would increase from absorbing sunlight. But the velocity of the air flowing over the blades is very high and I seriously question the temperature of the blade can be raised because of the high velocity airflow cooling the blade.
Also it seems that if the blades have to be balanced, then they could choose the lowest weight blades and use the weight of the paint to increase the blade weight to balance it with the other two. Also the white blades could be painted white to balance them.
But am I oversimplifying something? These are engineering problems that we pay engineers to solve! Where are they when we need them? 😢
Another possible solution is to put a whistle on the blade tips. The loud sound should scare away the birds. Another method to scare birds away is to fire a propane cannon every few minutes. These are already being used to scare birds away.
While air flow would cool a black blade, it would also cool the unpainted ones as well, so the unbalanced condition would still exist.
@@whiteknightcat
I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. There are 3 ways heat moves: convection, conduction and radiation. The conduction is minimal because the blades are made of fiberglass and resin, poor conductors. The blades receive radiation from the Sun but the black blades absorb more and radiate less than the white blades. But due to the high velocity air currents, convection makes up the predominant portion of the heat movement, much greater than the other two and equalizes the temperature.
One other factor is the blades are out in the sunlight only part of the day, lowering the effect of sunlight. But the sunlight affects the blades the most when the blades are not moving during no wind. But as soon ss the blades start to move, the cooling takes effect, minimizing temperature difference.
I wonder if painting a blade a color other than black (like red) might reduce how much that blade will absorb radiation and flex. I'm sure that birds have color vision, especially birds of prey. If not, the blade would appear darker in shade, anyway.
it sounds like an avenue the manufacturers don't want to go down, fortunately there are other solutions.
Paint black stripes on different blade positions. Use the paint to balance the blades.
How about an ultrasonic whistle on the blades. Can birds hear that?
What about a led on the tip of the blades? I imagine a bird approaching a wind turbine at night, and while evading the light that is blinking on the nacelle, it gets hit by the fast turning blade in the dark.
Great video! I wonder what the ratio is between birds killed by wind turbines and birds saved by the carbon emissions reduced
this data is not known and very difficult to estimate
Tilling the ground under wind turbines seems like the most ridiculous solution.
I wonder how many birds are killed every year in third world countries from being hunted for food and medicine with nets. I was recently searching ali express for bird netting for gardens and the search returned loads of results for netting to catch Birds.. 15m x 3m costs under £3 including postage and taxes 😢 my garden is a Haven for Birds, since I have ducks, wild birds are a lot more comfortable hanging around! ❤🐦🐦⬛🕊
Bird killings are usually a strawman used by those opposing wind energy. In reality, the statistics are very favorable. Although there's no harm in implementing methods that further reduce it.
*EXACTLY!*
Yep that pretty much sums up my thoughts. But I'd also add that for certain species that are already endangered, a poorly sited wind farm can really make a difference.
How is it a strawman if it happens?
@@matbroomfield Because it happens very, very rarely.
I’m curious why turbine builders aren’t making blades that can be refurbished? The endless stream of landfill blades are a huge drawback of wind power
I imagine that the wildlife will adapt to some degree. Are there studies of bird or bat deaths that maps deaths over time over, perhaps, several years? If deaths drop over time, then perhaps some preconditioning can occur like placing turbine mimicking sound generators where the towers will be eventually erected?
It is the high volume infrasound that disorents them, causing their death. So yes, paint the turbines whatever colors you want, just lock them in place so they don't make that life destroying infrasound .
Even without seeing the video, I see so many birds, ducks, and other animals being killed on the road, not by bicycles of course but cars.
I would not be surprised if we have big fossil to thank for guiding the public's keen eye onto our poor little tweeties and the NASTY WIND TURBINE
Rrather than painting one blade black, could one be made more visible to UV? Humans won't be able to see the difference but many birds would. Am I correct in thinking this would eliminate the issue of the extra radiated heat being absorbed compared to a black blade?
Has anyone tried putting a few UV LED's on the leading edges of the blades? Birds see UV light that humans don't, so it wouldn't disturb us, but maybe alert a bird that something is approaching. What do you think?
Hmmm, tilling. Interesting. What about installing solar panels - wind and solar farm?
Birds were tracked around my local wind farm and it turned out they flew around the farm instead of though it.