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.”
Time for this one:
eagle killing permits
Or A Licence to Kill; as 007 might put it. I haven’t heard of any “green” group of substance opposing this. Our very own Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says…
“Climate change is the greatest long-term threat to birds and other wildlife, so we urgently need to build more renewable energy, including onshore wind farms. There is a consistently high level of public support for onshore wind in polling and surveys. However, it’s essential that new onshore wind developments are designed in harmony with nature and that they do not have an adverse impact on wildlife. “
https://www.rspb.org.uk/helping-nature/what-we-do/influence-government-and-business/nature-and-climate-emergency/onshore-wind-power
Bad news for birds and bats alike. But strangely, they will go some to protect bats from locomotives.
“The cost of the notorious HS2 “bat tunnel” has soared to £125m, The i Paper can reveal.”
…
“The i Paper in November Revealed that the shed was being built to protect just 300 bats that do not roost in the nearest woodland”
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/hs2-bat-tunnel-farce-worsens-costs-rise-125m-3770983
The Bat Tunnel
As for the birds, the madness just gets.. well, more mad…
“Painting one blade of a wind turbine black could cut bird strikes at wind farms by up to 70%, a study suggests.” –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53909825
Not much good for echolocation, mind you.
All that really matters is that you believe.
Batman will continue to use the Bat Cave. In other news, the IPIE has issued a warning that deniers continue to deny the mountains of proof that man made global warming is real. Also, 1/3 of the population of Tuvalu want to move – rising ocean.
O/T: Worth a read…
“…on the BBC, you can’t get away from the meteorological equivalent of a Three Minute Warning. Red-for-danger maps, warnings to stay inside as though the nuclear bomb has dropped, pleas to check on elderly neighbours… and, of course, the endless brainwashing about ‘staying hydrated’.
We’re used to newsreaders acting like they’re our mums…”
There’s Nothing Horrifying About A Heatwave
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/06/27/theres-nothing-horrifying-about-a-heatwave/
Note last part about using a giant air gun to shoot fake eagle bodies into spinning wind turbine blades. Sounds like fun.
They should have used a traditional trebuchet.
I wonder if they consulted with these guys for the design?
https://www.punkinchunkin.com/the-competition/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmSyrGsqmg8
Wow the pumpkin air cannon with a range of 4,000 ft looks great!
I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
‘Til I’m free
Fly through the revolution
Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’
Into the future
— Steve Miller, 1976
Just one change. Revolution should be plural in the context of the article.
Cool!
If I had the wings of an eagle
If I had the a*se of a crow
I would fly over Melbourne tomorrow
And put scat on the bastards below.
Ah. Scatology at its finest.
🙂
Scientists AND government agencies should be completely open with their actual data.
I believe the number of “allowable eagle deaths” under each permit is NOT divulged to the public.
I therefore have zero trust in their process and their “mitigation science”.
Yes the Eagle take permits are made in secret. Whale take permits go through public comment.
Plus every found dead eagle must be reported and that data is secret.
https://www.cfact.org/2025/04/02/the-feds-are-hiding-the-eagle-death-data/
So we have no idea what is going on.
Trump nominated a FWS head four months ago but he has yet to be confirmed.
As a former regulator of nuclear power plants, I can assure you that if windmills were held to the same safety standards as nuclear plants, for harm to the environment, they would all be required to build bird-proof cages around each and every windmill, which would not allow the birds to get into the danger zone for the birds. I imagine that this might impact the economics of windmills. Similar protection would also be required of solar farms, which evidently have some adverse effects on birds and airplanes, and the solar collector/boiler plants, which literally fry the birds that fly thru the concentrated beams. And the possibility of large fires in battery storage facilities would also require an environmental impact investigation and statement, and containment to deal with the toxic smoke that would be released.
I worked for a major jet engine manufacturer. Jet engine testing has included firing defrosted birds into the air intakes of jet engines for many decades. A colleague once suggested they should be fired rear end first since no bird would willingly fly head first into an engine.
I was involved with F18 canopies for a while. I remember there was a facility in the Midwest that had a gun for firing frozen chickens at the forward part of the canopy at 450mph. Ouch.
I remember way back when such a gun was loaned to a foreign country (England, perhaps?) to test the windshield of something (a subway, perhaps?).
A panic phone call. An investigation. The people conducting the test were informed that the test did not include frozen chickens and that is why the windshield were shattering.
Not long after WW2 the US was developing a perspex for aircraft cockpit windows that could withstand a turkey strike. They used actual turkey caecasses in their tests. Britain asked for samples of the successful product. It failed their tests. Why? They used frozen turkeys.
Just how tests are conducted can make all the difference.
I posted above. The military used frozen chickens in the “Chicken Gun” AKA “Rooster Booster”. I wondered why frozen? I don’t know except maybe if the wind shield survives a frozen carcass, no problem with a live bird.
Frozen it becomes a solid mass, no ‘give’ as with the flesh of a flying bird. I seem to recall YouTube had clips from the original experiments. Or it may have shown up on Mythbusters. It’s been a while.
I remembered that as chickens. No matter.
Wiki lists it as a chicken gun first used in 1942.
Reminds me of Steve Martin, “put a live chicken in your underwear.” A very funny song from his early days.
Grandmother’s Song, 1977.
Anything like the Ray Stevens song “The Mississippi Squirrel”?