OSU center gets grant to study offshore wind impact on birds

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A new Department of Energy grant will fund the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center first foray into offshore wind research.

The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Oregon State University announced this week a three-year, $600,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop sensors to help gauge the impact of offshore wind turbines on birds and bats.

Researchers at the center are working on an array of sensors that will measure variations in blade movement. The sensors will be paired with infrared cameras and acoustic devices to record any strikes on bats or birds.

Unfortunately, the usual way to document the impact of wind turbines on birds and bats is to collect the carcasses,” said Robert Suryan, an OSU seabird expert who is principal investigator on the project, in a press release. “That would be hard to do out in the ocean.”

Suryan said that in Oregon many seabirds fly close to the surface of the ocean, potentially well below the sweep of wind turbine blades. The research will identify which species fly high enough to put them at risk of blade impact, as well as studying the potential for impact with turbine towers.

Suryan leads the project team which also includes engineers from OSU and the University of Washington.

"This is the first foray into offshore wind energy for the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center," said Belinda Batten, who directs the center, a joint effort between OSU and the University of Washington. “It builds upon our strengths in wave and tidal energy, and our efforts to gauge potential environmental impacts of new forms of renewable energy.”

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