SEER Webinar #3: Bat and Bird Interactions with Offshore Wind Energy

At the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are jointly leading the U.S. Offshore Wind Synthesis of Environmental Effects Research (SEER) project, a multi-year collaborative effort designed to facilitate knowledge transfer for offshore wind environmental research around the world. 

Through significant stakeholder outreach and engagement efforts, the SEER team identified a set of research topics pertinent to offshore wind development on the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. The SEER team is now developing a corresponding set of educational research briefs that synthesize key issues, identify existing knowledge gaps, and prioritize future research needs.

As part of this effort, the SEER team hosted a series of free, public webinars that presented findings from the briefs and featured panel discussions with subject matter experts, followed by question-and-answer periods. The third webinar covered topics related to: Bat and Bird Interactions with Offshore Wind Energy. 

During the webinar, Dr. Cris Hein (NREL) summarized how birds and bats interact with wind turbines and how that relates to potential collision events and behavioral responses, including avoidance. He also reviewed how technologies (e.g., radar, thermal cameras) used to study the behavior of birds and bats may help refine monitoring and minimization strategies. Dr. Pamela Loring (US Fish and Wildlife Service), Kate Williams (Biodiversity Research Institute), Dr. Trevor Peterson (Stantec), and Robin Brabant (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences) participated in the event as subject matter experts during the panel discussion. 

View the presentation slides here.

The webinar recording is available below: