Article published in Naturschutz und Landschaftsplanung

So far, around 30,000 wind turbines (WT) have been installed in Germany, and the trend is still rising. To protect bats and birds, operators must in many cases implement shutdown algorithms to reduce mortality. Risks are posed by a possible collision with the rotor blades or, especially in the case of bats, due to barotrauma caused by pressure differences near the rotor blades. In this paper a technological approach is presented, which can provide first indications for the control of compliance with species protection regulations for WT operation. The technical developments include sensor technology, a web portal and the timely detection of a potential malfunction. Within the scope of field studies, the first prototypes were successfully tested both with mobile WT demonstrators and with an active WT (type Vestas V82). With a correlation coefficient of 0.982, the rotational speeds determined achieve a very good agreement with the WT operating protocol.

More information:

Moll, J. ; Mälzer, M.; Maetz, T.; Simon, J.; Taremi Zadeh, A.; Memmolo, V.; Beck, S.; Encarnacao, J. & Dürr, M., Plattform zur Sicherstellung des Artenschutzes bei Windkraftvorhaben, Naturschutz und Landschaftsplanung, 2021 (accepted in February 2021)