Today I learned why wind farms paint one turbine blade black
A Norwegian trial cut bird deaths by about 72% with one black blade but a Dutch follow-up experiment found no effect, so newer offshore farms are now trying red.
A single painted turbine blade can significantly reduce bird deaths at wind farms, according to a three-year experiment in Norway. The Smøla wind farm painted one blade on four out of 68 turbines, resulting in a 70% decrease in bird carcasses within 100 meters of the site over ten years. Researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research compared the results to regular turbines and published their findings in Ecology and Evolution in 2020.
The black blade helps birds distinguish the moving blades from the background, reducing the risk of collision. However, similar experiments in the Netherlands did not yield positive results due to local bird species and population size. A Dutch consortium is now testing red blades in offshore wind farms, as seabirds may not require as much assistance as land birds.
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