Posters

Abstract

Wind farm operators are subject to evolving challenges regarding the need to balance bat conservation with wind energy production and economics. At the moment blanket curtailment is the current leading global solution for reduction of bat fatalities at wind farms. We present a case study for a wind turbine in Southern England trialling a new curtailment approach. When the turbine was installed 9 years ago, acoustic surveys and bat carcass searches concluded bat activity levels were 'moderate' compared to elsewhere. In July and August of 2023, a Wildlife Acoustics SMART real-time bat detection system with smart curtailment modelling capabilities was deployed at the turbine. Seven species of bats were detected, with varying levels of activity per night and throughout the 2-month summer period. No bats flew in wind speeds over 8m/s and 10% of passes were at over 4m/s So, how important is the 10%? Further examining the 3 days with the most bat passes and the blocks of times through the night, while factoring wind speed, we modeled energy loss production should smart curtailment have occurred as well as comparing curtailment at 4m/s vs. 6m/s. We then evaluated the number of alarms resulting in turbine stops per day and modeled stops vs downtime based on the bat activity over the two months. I will discuss how an operator can evaluate curtailment strategies for managing stops to determine the optimal strategy and balance between energy production, strain on the turbine hardware and bat protection. Is the optimal decision to have several short stops or fewer longer stops? For this particular site, data and the operator supported stoppage for 10 minutes when bat activity alarm criteria were met.