Biodiversity and onshore wind farms – Nature+Energy

05 July 2021

By Emma King, project manager for the Nature+Energy project, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin.

1. What is the Nature+Energy project
   
   The Nature+Energy project is a 4-year project which began in 2021. It is a collaboration between academia and industry, focused on developing the tools needed to optimise land management and the delivery of biodiversity benefits from onshore wind farms.

It uses a natural capital accounting approach. This is a method of measuring ecosystem services in a standardised and reportable format. Its application on wind farms allows us to report on the capacity of the habitat’s surrounding turbines to support biodiversity and highlight areas that could benefit from management.

2. Why is it important for wind farms?

The goal of the project is to maximise the positive impact of wind farms while mitigating any negative effects. It is important that we learn more about the opportunities for wildlife in the land surrounding wind turbines.

3. How have the project’s environmental monitoring system trials been progressing?

We have collected over 5,000 hours of acoustic data (up to 20kHz, human hearing range) and 1,000 hours of ultrasonic data (up to 256 kHz) so far. Using both existing machine learning models and custom-trained models on our own data and datasets sourced online, we classify bird species present in acoustic sound clips. After exploring various methods to improve classifier accuracy, we have achieved 88% accuracy across 27 bird species. The final model will need to scale to around 200 species to cover most of the bird species found in Ireland.

We also recently deployed recorders at three different sites and collected a significant amount of ultrasonic (bat) data. We are building a machine learning classifier for this data, similar to the bird detector, though much fewer bat species (~9) are present in the country.

4. Tell me more about the Sectoral Biodiversity Action Plan – and what will it provide to the wind industry?

The Sectoral Biodiversity Action Plan, built on learnings from the project, will provide a comprehensive set of guidelines on feasible actions for biodiversity that can be implemented on wind farms. Actions will cover a range of habitats and showcase methods the industry can use to go beyond to benefit biodiversity.

5. What are the key takeaway messages from the Nature+Energy project?

Collaboration is key to delivering biodiversity benefits at windfarms, and taking advantage of a range of expertise is needed to develop win win scenarios for biodiversity and wind energy. We must continue to work together to build on our knowledge of potential impacts and make sure we have plans in place to mitigate, protect, and enhance biodiversity, leading to win-win scenarios for both climate and biodiversity.

6. What changes do you hope to see taking place in Ireland as a result of your team’s research?

Increased uptake of positive actions for biodiversity going beyond what is required. Providing tools to the industry, we hope to help them to find more targeted ways to benefit biodiversity on land under their management.

7. Why are wind farms good locations for nature projects in general?

Our surveys have demonstrated the vast variety of habitats, flora and fauna found across wind farms in Ireland, and we have been lucky to see and record the beauty of Ireland’s wildlife, from bees, to mammals, soaring birds, and a host of plant species. Installation of the turbines can create heterogeneity and pockets of new habitats thriving with life. Wind farms support important research on surveying and monitoring their surroundings, developing a broader understanding of Ireland’s ecosystems both within the direct vicinity of the turbines and also surrounding areas. They also can support the implementation of management and conservation actions, increasing habitats and resources available to our native flora and fauna.

Find out more about the project here: https://www.marei.ie/project/ natureenergy/