Wind turbines or bird Cuisinarts?
|
|
|
MILAN, Italy, May 10 New technologies are making an effort to mitigate environmental concerns over bird fatalities caused by wind turbines in Europe.A new monitoring program called WT-Bird has passed preliminary tests and will enter the next phase of testing. The WT-Bird, created by the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands, uses several techniques to monitor bird collisions."It's important because this hampers the planning process and harms the reputation of the wind industry," said Edwin Wiggelinkhuizen of ERC. Acoustic sensors in the blades go off when the bird or bat or other object hits the rotor, causing vibrations. The sensor triggers a message to the operator and there's a corresponding video feed from cameras, near the base of the turbine, that point up at the rotor from four angles.The WT-Bird is slightly more advanced than the standard research methods, which rely heavily on physical human observation and radars that can be inaccurate. However, there are still problems calculating mortality, said Wiggelinkhuizen; especially with low-speed turbines, not every bird that collides with the blades will die.The technology also detects when lightning strikes so any damage can be repaired quickly.Copyright 2007 by UPI
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related News
Baltics reaffirm commitment to new nuclear plant
Vilnius - The prime ministers of three Baltic states said Friday they remained committed to the joint construction of a new nuclear power station for the region in which Poland will also have a share. After talks in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, th...
India, Sweden hold talks on climate change, energy
New Delhi - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Swedish counterpart, Fredrik Reinfeldt, Thursday held talks on a wide range of issues in hopes of providing a fresh impetus to bilateral ties in the areas of trade, energy and environment. Sing...
EU's Barroso urges Ukraine to avoid disruptions in gas supplies
Brussels - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday urged Ukraine to do everything in its power to prevent a repeat of last winter's gas crisis, in which a fight with Russia over money cut off supplies to much of Europe. Europea...
Iran favours purchase of nuclear fuel, envoy says - Summary
Vienna - Iran favours purchasing nuclear fuel for its research reactor, Tehran's UN ambassador in Vienna said Monday, indicating the country is reluctant to send uranium abroad for reprocessing. That would go against the concept favoured by the Unite...
Timor Sea oil rig catches fire
Sydney - A Thai oil exploration company said Sunday its leaking Timor Sea oil well had caught fire. The West Atlas drilling platform operated by PTTEP Australasia in the Montara field 690 kilometres west of Darwin has been leaking around 400 barrels ...
Lawmaker says Tehran reactor to be shut down
Tehran - A senior Iranian member of parliament said Saturday that Tehran's research reactor would be shut down in the near future, making the nuclear fuel deal with world powers irrelevant. The Tehran reactor will soon be replaced by the 40-megawatt...
ANALYSIS:Experts gloomy about Iranian uranium deal
Vienna - There is little hope that Iran will agree to an multinational deal to reduce its uranium stockpile, experts said Friday, as the plan has got caught up in Iran's fractious internal politics. While the United States, Russia and France have sai...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
