Wind is key to achieve sustainable energy production in EU countries. However, one of the current stopping blocks to increase wind energy production is the risk of bat mortality due to collisions and pressure shocks. As bats are legally protected in all EU countries, many wind turbines are regularly stopped for entire nights during critical periods of bat activity.
This project will study the feasibility of applying radar-based bat detectors to enable precise and localized wind turbine shutdown
More wind energy and happy bats with BatGuardian radar
All European bat species are legally protected under EU laws, but the expansion of onshore and offshore wind farms threaten them due to collisions and pressure shocks. To mitigate bat mortality, EU laws mandate operational measures often involving ‘blanket curtailment’, basically a complete stop of wind parks based on weather data used as proxies for bat presence. These shutdowns curtail green energy production and cause loss of revenue, and are often unnecessary if there are no bats. To address this, in this project we propose to develop a low-cost radar-based system and related data processing algorithms to detect bats and track their flight patterns in real time near wind turbines. This will allow more localized stops of wind turbines.