Abstract
DTBird’s monitoring system is used today on wind turbine farms in a number of European countries but to date, DTBird installations and similar technical systems have not been used in Sweden.
In order to keep pace with continual investment in renewable energy in Sweden – where wind power is widely used – it is all the more important to look at the possibilities on offer to reduce the effects of wind turbines on avifauna. Against the problematical background that wind turbines kill birds, in 2015 Ecocom, in collaboration Vindform, initiated a pilot project 1) to install and showcase the DTBird system, and 2) to evaluate how the DTBird system performs under Swedish conditions. Part 1 of the project comprised a presentation and seminar on two occasions in Lundsbrunn during the course of 2015, where wind turbine designers, authorities and law practitioners were invited. Part 2 of the project, that comprises evaluation of the pilot installation, is reviewed in this report.
Within the framework of the pilot project, a DTBird System 1 was set up at a wind turbine near Lundsbrunn in Sweden. During July-September 2015, i.e. during the breeding and migration period of birds, data was collected from the system to be subsequently analysed.
Testing recorded how effective the DTBird system was in warning away birds from the wind turbine and therefore from the collision risk area, from how far away the warning sound can be heard and whether the installed system on the wind turbine in Lundsbrunn was observed to disturb breeding birds or was deemed to have a negative effect by local residents. The total system activation time has also been recorded and therefore energy production loss that wind turbine stoppages would have led to.
The attached is an English translation of the Swedish summary.