Presentations

Abstract

During the past 10 years, a huge development in innovation and application of automated monitoring technologies focused on the collision risk for birds, has taken place globally in response to the build out of offshore wind farms (OWFs). The main driver behind this development has been the rise in requirements which have been put forward by regulators globally. In addition, the development has been motivated by the need to resolve the practical and safety issues related to deployment of human observers on vessels, in aircrafts, or on offshore structures. Although evaluation standards for bird monitoring technologies have been developed and applied by for instance the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute (REWI) in the US, certification of bird monitoring equipment is generally lacking. As a consequence, OWFs developers worldwide face the daunting task of assessing the quality of available technologies as judged from their technological benefits and drawbacks. This is not the least the case in relation to regulators' requirements and technology readiness levels (TRLs) for OWFs. It is a fact that few monitoring technologies have been developed specifically for detection of flying birds. Most available bird monitoring technologies are merely offshore adaptations of technologies commonly applied onshore without consideration of the particular operational and technical challenges in offshore environments. Accordingly, many innovations have only reached TRL 6 or 7, and only a minority of monitoring technologies are at TRL 8 or 9. Adding to this, there is a widespread disappointment in the market for land-based wind farms in relation to the performance of commercially available bird detection systems, many of which are now offered to OWF developments. DHI has applied bird detection systems in 28 OWF projects worldwide since 2008, of which half (14) have involved automated detection. In this review we will share the challenges and the associated developments of technological solutions experienced in the OWF market with examples from these DHI projects as well as published results from other monitoring projects. The review will focus on the most recent period between 2018 and 2024, and will cover the following challenges experienced in behavioural monitoring studies as well as monitoring activities related to collision mitigation operations: * Installation complexity * Retrofit ability * IT-Security and potential for integration with OWF network * Capacity for integration with SCADA * Capacity for collision mitigation * Control of false (positive/negative) signal rates * Automated AI-based species id * Continuous and parallel monitoring of bird densities at macro, meso and micro scales * Continuous monitoring of bird flight speed * Continuous monitoring of bird flight height * Continuous monitoring of bird avoidance behaviour at macro, meso and micro scales * Continuous monitoring of bird collisions