CORVALLIS, Ore. — According to a report from MIT Climate, anywhere from 140,000 to 679,000 birds are killed by wind turbine blades in the U.S. each year. Now, a team at Oregon State University (OSU) is working on a potential — and straightforward — solution to the problem.
"Our work is focused on a very simple technology of painting one blade black of the three on individual wind turbines to see about reducing those collisions," said Christian Hagen, a senior research faculty member from the OSU Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Sciences.
Yes, it's that simple: just painting one of the blades black instead of all of them being white.
The study is part of a collaborative effort between OSU; PacifiCorp, which owns Pacific Power; and several other organizations, including the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Energy, Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute, Invenergy and NextEra Energy Resources.
This all got started in 2021 after the Oregon Legislature provided $400,000 to the university to study the effectiveness of painting one turbine blade black. PacifiCorp is a partner because they want to know whether the technique works, and they have the facilities to research it.
The project is the expansion of a similar effort conducted in the renewable energy hub of Norway.
Though the study's results were very "compelling," showing a greater than 70% reduction in collisions, the study had a sample size of only four turbines, said Hagen.
"Like any new technology, new pharmaceuticals ... you want to have a large sample size before you move forward with making broad changes," he explained. "That's really what our study is focused on is replicating what they did in Norway, but over a larger number of turbines."
Right now, OSU's study consists of 56 turbines total: 28 with one blade painted black, and 28 with none of their blades painted at all.
But how does painting one blade cause birds to avoid hitting the turbine altogether?
Compare it to a bicycle wheel, Hagen explained. At rest, you can see all of the spokes — but as the wheel begins spinning faster and faster while you pedal, the spokes seem to vanish.
"(It's the) same principle with the wind turbines," Hagen said. "A lot of people don't realize this, but (when) those blades are moving, the top speeds can be over 200 miles per hour, so while it looks slow to us from afar, as you get up close, those things are really whipping around.
"So, the concept is that black blade — a single black blade — interrupts that smear," Hagen concluded. "It kind of recreates a flicker effect, where it interrupts that pattern."
Hagen said government and industry groups are interested in the data they end up with simply because results could help change policy — and could save thousands of birds, such as golden eagles and ferruginous hawks.
"It's very probable that if the magnitude of the effect is like we saw in Norway, I would anticipate that you would see various states, counties trying to implement some changes," Hagen said.