Project description

It is expected that along with the development of offshore wind energy projects, their cumulative environmental impacts will increase. That will require measures minimizing the negative impact of offshore wind farms on migrating birds. The project aims at commercializing a service of research of migrating birds, which involves studies of bird flight at higher sea levels, and will provide information on the number of bird flights at ceilings of <20 m. Measurements of migratory bird flights, collected by means of a stabilized ornithological radar, will be the basis for calculations of the predicted bird mortality around wind farms. Therefore, our service of studying the flights of migratory birds will bring environmental benefits in the form of reduced collisions of birds with offshore wind turbines, and financial benefits consisting in optimizing wind turbine shutdown times only to periods of increased risk of bird collisions with such wind turbines. Until now detection studies at higher sea levels could not be achieved in that scope, and the project innovation stems from stabilizing bird radars. The stabilizing platform, together with a structure connecting the platform to the radar system, will be designed and constructed by the Norwegian project partner, STABLE AS, that will also test the sea swell compensation of the stabilized ornithological radar in close-to-natural conditions. When the stabilized radar unit is ready, it will be tested by an independent research institute.