This bird is historical

For onshore wind it is relatively easy to see any impact on bird life, but how do you monitor that for offshore wind?

METCentre has invested in a ground breaking, AI powered, bird monitoring system from the Norwegian start-up Spoor. The system consists of a high-quality camera coupled with a proprietary AI solution, analysing 700 000 images a day. This means that any bird passing the camera’s view will be recognized and counted.

This is where the bird in the picture above comes in. It is historical. The bird was the first bird captured by the camera that has been mounted on the Unitech Zefyros turbine for the past three weeks.

Part of the requirement in the licenses for wind turbines is environmental monitoring, including bird life. Traditionally, this has been done with the help of birdwatchers who are out with binoculars. But this becomes more problematic when the turbines are out at sea

Mads Arild Vedøy, Project Manager at METCentre

The purpose for installing such a system at METCentre is not only to gather information about bird activity at the test site, but also to help develop a system that will be useful for the entire industry.


Read more

Haugesunds Avis (Norwegian): Energi, Miljø | Denne fuglen utenfor Karmøy er historisk (h-avis.no)

Spoor: http://spoor.ai