Dutch plans to slow bird killer wind turbine blades during migratory season

As part of its national energy agreement, the Dutch government wants to boost the capacity of offshore wind parks from their present 4 gigawatts to 21 gigawatts by 2030. 

Wind turbines and bird deaths in the Netherlands

Windmills kill 50,000 birds in the Netherlands every year, according to Amsterdam Wind, a project of four energy companies.

The idea may lower the number of bird deaths by wind turbines, though it is unclear how much it will cost the owners of wind parks. 

"It's not clear how much the plan will cost wind park operators, who will have to bear the financial consequences of producing less energy," said the Bloomberg report. 

"If successful, the pilot project could be rolled out to all wind parks and apply to all windmills built in the future."

The pilot project might also apply to new windmills essential for the Netherlands transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

Are seabirds accustomed to wind turbine blades? 

Vattenfall, a Swedish energy provider, said last month that birds are already habituated to wind turbine blades and know how to avoid them, Interesting Engineering reported.

The company spent $3.1 million on a two-year study of seabirds at its 11-turbine Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm in Scotland.

European Offshore Wind Deployment Center maintains that the study was done better to understand seabird flight behavior at an offshore wind farm and obtained extensive data on seabird flying. 

The movements of herring gulls, gannets, kittiwakes, and great black-backed gulls were examined during the research.

"These birds are really good at avoiding the turbines. Now we need studies on more varieties," claimed Henrik Skov, project lead of the study. 

 "This is the first time that any kind of bird species has been studied this closely and in detail at an offshore wind farm," he said.