Wind farms in Wallonia will benefit from a bird detection tool in the coming months, wind project developers Eneco and Renner-Energies announced on Friday.
The detection tool's primary aim is to mitigate the impact of wind turbine installations on Wallonia's wildlife.
Concretely, this system uses cameras that detect birds in the vicinity and identify them. If necessary, the rotation of the wind turbine blades is then slowed or even stopped to avoid any risk of collision.
The tool was tested for several months at an operational wind farm and showed performance "sufficient to significantly reduce the risk of collision for large birds such as the red kite, common buzzard or marsh harrier", according to the environmental consultancy company that carried out the test.
The two companies claim to have obtained approval from the Walloon authorities to introduce the system in all the region's wind farms.
"Generally speaking we have a low mortality rate from collisions, but this system will enable us to further mitigate the impact on Walloon birdlife. We plan to implement it on our wind farms in the coming months," says Stephane Van de Goor, Benelux regional manager at Renner-Energies.
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"We already had a system for slowing our wind turbines to protect bats. We are now proudly able to offer an equivalent system to mitigate the impact of our wind farms on Walloon birds," comments Arnaud Janvier, head of Walloon wind development at Eneco Wind Belgium.
Walloon Minister for the Environment, Nature, Forestry, Rural Affairs and Animal Welfare, Céline Tellier, also welcomed the initiative which "reconciles the development of renewable energy and the protection of birds", while looking forward to "its introduction within Walloon wind farms."
