Feds ignore their research on windmills killing eagles – Watts Up With That?

By David Wojick

The U.S. Energy Department (DOE) has an ongoing research program on detecting and deterring the killing of eagles and other flying critters by wind turbines. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issues eagle killing permits to wind facilities, which are supposed to incorporate technologies that minimize deaths.

It looks like FWS has never implemented, or even publicly evaluated, any of DOE’s research products. The permits are issued under the Eagle Protection Act, which clearly calls for mitigating eagle deaths, and the DOE products claim to do so. This is a glaring deficiency.

For example, here are four DOE research reports from 2021-22, which FWS has had plenty of time to look at.

“A Heterogeneous System for Eagle Detection, Deterrent, and Wildlife Collision Detection for Wind Turbines”

Technical Report – Jan. 2021

“Golden Eagle Behavioral Modeling Enabled by High-Fidelity Atmospheric Models”

Conference presentation – May 27, 2021

“SSRS (Stochastic Soaring Raptor Simulator)”

Software – October 18, 2021

“Evaluating the effectiveness of a camera-based detection system to support informed curtailment and minimize eagle fatalities at wind energy facilities”

Technical Report – January 27, 2022

Here is a recent example.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Detection and Deterrent System in Reducing Golden Eagle Fatalities at Operational Wind Facilities

Technical Report – May 30, 2024

The DOE research has been going on for at least a decade. It may have begun with this:

“Wind Energy Industry Eagle Detection and Deterrents: Research Gaps and Solutions Workshop Summary Report”

Technical Report – April 13, 2016

DOE is also looking at other birds as well as bats. (It is estimated by some that windmills kill more bats than birds.) Here are a few recent examples:

“Activity-Based Informed Curtailment: Using Acoustics to Design and Validate Smart Curtailment to Reduce Risk to Bats at Wind Farms”

Technical Report – January 15, 2025

“Evaluation of the Turbine Integrated Mortality Reduction (TIMRSM) Technology as a Smart Curtailment Approach (Final Summary Report)”

Technical Report – July 14, 2024

There is even research that I find morbidly amusing. They have developed a prototype air gun to shoot projectiles emulating birds and bats into windmills to simulate deadly collisions.

See “Design of a Launcher for Wildlife Collision Simulation on Wind Turbines to Validate Strike Detection Systems”

Conference presentation – October 17, 2024

Strike detection is important for knowing how many critters are actually being killed, especially offshore, where they cannot simply count carcasses. Also, some proposed mitigation systems use it. They apparently tested two strike detection systems, and both worked.

Here are some interesting features:

“Projectile Design: Projectiles were sized 8 g, 25 g, and 250 g. They were constructed of unflavored gelatin and laser-cut balsa wood to simulate flesh and bone while having aerodynamic characteristics that would allow for repeatable flight trajectories. The gelatin mixture also contained a trace amount of concentrated coyote urine to deter wildlife from consuming the projectiles on the ground before they could decompose.”

Concentrated coyote urine seems like an esoteric product. In any case, this is just a prototype since the biggest projectile is just over a half pound and they were just fired at a 1.5 MW test windmill. These are synthetic bats and small birds.

Eagles can weigh up to 15 pounds, and shooting projectiles of that size into 3 to 4 MW blades could be spectacular. Note that it is not easy to hit the blades, which can have tip speeds over 200 mph. They report a 35% hit rate, so this could become a sport or even a competition.

I can find no evidence that the Fish and Wildlife Service is even assessing the use of these various technologies in conjunction with its eagle kill permitting. They are solely focused on an electrocution offset program that does not work.

See my article, “Wind power’s eagle-kill permits are a deadly failure, so permitting must stop.”

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