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Wind farms considering detection systems to prevent bird deaths
Now, in what has become one of the most critical conservation issues in the state, wind farms are considering using radar units and experimental telemetry systems that they hope will avoid harming birds by identifying incoming species early enough to switch off the massive turbines and then - to minimize costs and maximize profits - turn them back on again as quickly as possible.
May 28, 2012
by Louis Sahagun
in Los Angeles Times
Adding bird detection systems could protect wind farms from litigation in case of deaths of threatened species.
MOJAVE - Just before daybreak, a group of naturalists don parkas to blunt the frosty wind blowing down a narrow canyon in the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles. They mount spotting scopes and cameras on tripods, and wait.
"Showtime," one of them whispers at the first rays of light. The silence is broken by thousands of brightly colored birds the size of Christmas ornaments pouring north through the canyon on whooshing wings, just a few yards above ground.
Kern County bird expert Bob Barnes... [continue via Web link]
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