Japan Weather Association joins Taiwan’s “Ex-post Birds Survey Work on Offshore Wind Power Generation” with “Birds Migration and Collision Monitoring Technology” ~Japan’s Birds Monitoring Technology adopted for infrastructure equipment overseas for the first time~
Press Release
Japan Weather Association (hereinafter “JWA”) informs that its own “Birds Migration and Collision Monitoring Technology” has been adopted for Taiwan’s “Ex-post Birds Survey Work on Offshore Wind Power Generation”. This work is a survey to understand the effects of windmill operation on birds.
The “Birds Migration and Collision Monitoring Technology” developed by JWA for wind power generation projects mainly consists of (1) “Bird Migration Tracing Extraction System” utilizing marine radar*1 and (2) “Bird Strike*2 Detection System*3” which is combined with an thermal camera and motion detection program.
This is the first time that such a domestic bird monitoring technology has been adopted for overseas infrastructure equipment. In addition, we think that this will be one of the technologies from Japanese companies related to offshore wind power generation described in the “Infrastructure System Export Strategy” (FY2019 revised edition), which was decided by the Economic Cooperation Infrastructure Strategy Council sponsored by the Cabinet Secretariat.
*1 Marine radar uses S band and X band. Originally, marine radar was used to detect seabirds in skipjack fishing etc. (S band) and to prevent ship collision with obstacles (X band). It is said that X-band has a short wavelength making it easy to catch reflected waves from an object, and S-band has a long wavelength and little radio wave attenuation, which is convenient for catching distant objects. JWA’s “Birds Migration and Collision Monitoring Technology” uses S-band and X-band separately (or in combination) according to the scale and location conditions of the wind power generation business.
*2 Bird Strike… An accident where birds collide with an aircraft or wind power generation facility.
*3 Bird Strike Detection System… Announced in July 2016（https://www.jwa.or.jp/news/2016/07/4615/）
In cooperation with WeatherRisk Explore Inc., a private weather service company in Taiwan, JWA will carry out the project in an offshore wind power generation facility (total output 640 MW) off the coast of Yun Lin County, which will be developed by the Taiwanese corporation “wpd Energy Group” a member of Germany’s leading renewable energy developer wpd.
JWA’s "Birds Migration and Collision Monitoring Technology" for wind power generation business
In addition to a conventional survey, an ex-post survey that solves the issues found in the conventional survey is possible by combining the “Bird Migration Tracing Extraction System” and the “Bird Strike Detection System”.
■ Conventional Survey
Visual Inspection
・Visually track flying birds and trace their trajectory on a map
Corpse Survey
・Survey near the windmill and find the corpses of birds that died in collisions with the windmill
< Issues >
・Since it is visual, there are issues such as tracing to the map and flight altitude accuracy.
・It is difficult to observe at night due to visual observation.
・It is necessary to secure a large number of bird investigators for long-term observation over a wide area.
・Corpse survey at sea is difficult.
■ JWA’s "Birds Migration and Collision Monitoring Technology"
Bird Migration Tracing Extraction System (With use of S band and X band of marine radar)
・High-accuracy and long-term observation over a wide area is possible, as well as night time observation, which was an issue.
・Highly accurate flight altitude and trajectory of birds can be automatically extracted from video.
Bird Strike Detection System (With use of thermal camera and motion detection program)
・Highly accurate automatic observation of birds flying near or colliding with a windmill is possible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
・It is an effective method at sea where corpse surveying is difficult.
Originally released in Japanese on 2020/05/27
Rewrote in detailed English on 2020/06/17
