Turbine shutdown as an essential tool to prevent soaring bird fatalities at the Gulf of Suez
Creators: name: Leitao, Alexandre H
name: Moreira, Pedro
name: Pires, Nadine
name: Cidraes-Vieira, Nuno
name: Canario, Filipe
name: Repas-Goncalves, Miguel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Shutdown on demand
Migratory soaring birds
Wind energy
Collision
Radar

description: Climate change caused by high emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere demands for worldwide reduction in<br> fossil fuel energy production and increased use of wind energy as a clean alternative. However, there is a potential conflict<br> between wildlife conservation and wind energy production. Bird mortalities may be high at windfarms installed along<br> migratory flyways and bottlenecks, where a large number of species and large proportions of their global populations<br> congregate during migration.<br> The Rift Valley/Red Sea (RV-RS) flyway is the second most important flyway in the world for soaring birds, connecting the<br> species’ breeding grounds in Eurasia and the wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring birds depend on thermals<br> for migration and thus congregate in large numbers at straits and land bridges to avoid long crosses over sea. The Gabel<br> el Zayt in Egypt, classified as an important bird area is an integral part of the RV-RS flyway. It is located on the shores of<br> the Red Sea, south of the Gulf of Suez land bridge, and its geographical configuration funnels the migratory birds through<br> a narrow land strip framed by the Red Sea mountains and the coastline. Wind regimens in Gabel el Zayt are among the<br> best for wind energy production and large windfarms are already operating in the area.<br> To mitigate soaring bird mortalities at the 240 MW Gabel el Zayt windfarm, STRIX conducted radar assisted wind turbine<br> shutdowns during spring migration from 2016 to 2020.<br> STRIX also established a monitoring program to quantify the number of soaring birds migrating daily, further assess the<br> international importance of the site, and evaluate the risk of mortality due to collisions. Fieldwork was conducted daily<br> from early morning to late afternoon at vantage points located at the perimeter and centre of the windfarm. Observers<br> followed all movements of birds within and outside the windfarm and recorded, among other data, time of observation,<br> species, number of individuals, flight height and flight direction. Meteorological data was recorded hourly. Daily estimates<br> of the number of migratory birds were produced by excluding movements recorded by more than one vantage point.<br> STRIX’s monitoring of soaring birds in the Gabel el Zayt windfarm is to date the most comprehensive study in the region<br> covering the entire spring migration.<br> Forty soaring bird species were recorded between 2016 and 2020, including seven globally threatened and two near<br> threatened species. The total number of soaring birds per year averaged 309,041 individuals and was highest in 2016<br> with 397,076 recorded soaring birds. Results also show that the site is of international importance for the conservation of<br> 18 species, with numbers recorded per year surpassing 1% of the estimated flyway population. Noteworthy, numbers<br> recorded for seven species surpassed 10% of the flyway population. Furthermore, the application of migrant collision risk<br> Band models to evaluate the species’ vulnerability to mortality by collision, indicates that expected mortalities are not<br> negligible for a large array of species, thus highlighting the importance of conducting radar assisted shutdown operations<br> at windfarms in the region. CWW2022 4 - 8 April 2022 Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands Poster Presentations<br> 96<br> Theme: 5. Wind and wildlife interaction in practice<br> Turbine shutdown as an essential tool to prevent soaring bird mortality at the Gulf of<br> Suez<br> Alexandre Leitão, Pedro Moreira, Nadine Pires, Nuno C. Vieira, Filipe Canário, Miguel Repas<br> Correspondence author: Alexandre Leitão, STRIX<br> Email: alexandre.leitao@strix.pt
description: Conference presentations and posters are typically about preliminary findings and are usually followed up by a detailed paper. This poster is based only on its abstract and may offer limited information. Please contact us for the detailed project brief, which may offer additional information that you can utilize for your research. This project was commissioned to STRIX by the developers of the Gabel el Zeyt Wind Farm NREA, supported by KfW, EIB and EU.