Windfarms provide many advantages, making it one of the fastest-growing energy sources in the world. The structures, however, pose a danger to birds, and such a threat is considered one of the significant negative impacts of wind farms. 

A recent study on Smola, a Norwegian archipelago suggests that coloring painting the wind turbines led to an average annual reduction of 70 percent in bird fatalities. The experiment also revealed that the painting part of some turbine towers black also reduces incidences of bird mortality.

(Photo: Pixabay)
Wind farms come with many benefits but it poses a great danger to birds. A study suggests that painting the wind turbine black could make a difference could decrease bird deaths by 70 percent

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Painting the Wind Turbines Black 

The study which was done in one wind farm in Smola, recorded six bird deaths on four painted turbines, while 18 fatalities were recorded on four control turbines that were not painted. The findings suggest that painting the turbines black lessens the risks of the fatality of the birds without doing much of reengineering. 

The findings, which were published in Ecology and Evolution journal, had encouraging results. Still, researchers emphasized the need to test the experiment in different wind farms to make the findings more conclusive. 

Since the wind turbines were already installed, painting the rotor blades required additional costs, according to Roel May, a conservation biologist of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA). "If the painting is done before construction, however, both the cost and the bird mortality will be reduced."

Painting the blades black may address concerns of numerous bird deaths associated with wind farms, the researchers suggest. Doing the simple tweak on turbines reduces motion smear - the difficulty to have a visual lock when an object is moving, making the blades more visible to birds.

Other possible ways to reduce bird deaths were covering the blades with ultraviolet paint and position turbines in areas of updraft that birds usually soar. 

Although painting the wind turbines black was found to be useful in this study, researchers suggest that other colors may also be tried. 

The researchers also said that more studies are needed on various sites to see what works best in keeping the birds away from the turbine.

According to Dr. May, the reduction of the motion smear concept roots of the rotating blades back to an experiment done in the US at the beginning of the century. 

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Windfarms Innovations That Are Bird-Friendly

The researchers cite that in the Smola wind-power plant, one of the largest onshore wind farm in Norway, six to nine white-tailed eagles die every year, causing opposition and conflict on the project. 

Martin Harper, the director for conservation at the Royal Society for Protection (RSPB) welcomed the development as the finding are valuable in understanding additional mitigations may be used once a suitable site for wind farms had been chosen. 

The spokeswoman for Scottish Power Renewables, UK's largest onshore facility said that the findings were "definitely an interesting development".

According to Dr.May, the research team also have to test whether other rotor blade patterns such as red blade tips may also be equally effective. 

He said that he also looked forward to windfarm developers adopt mitigating measures such as painting the wind turbine black to protect to lessen bird fatalities. 

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