Gillian Vallejo Senior Geospatial Modeller Natural Power Consultants Planning and Environment Springkerse Business Park
Ochil House, Stirling FK7 7XE, Scotland
United Kingdom gillianv@naturalpower.com
www.naturalpower.com
Avian Collision Risk Modelling: A Comparison of
Methods for Airborne Wind Energy Devices
Gillian Vallejo1, Erik Klop2, Jaap Bosch3 1Natural Power Consultants 2Altenburg & Wymenga3Ampyx Power B.V. Kite technology provides an innovative contribution to
the renewable energy industry, allowing previously inac-cessible wind resource to be harnessed for energy gen-eration. Assessing the environmental impact of kite de-vices will inevitably constitute a key concern when plan-ning deployment sites. One key consideration which has shaped the wind energy industry has been the potential for bird mortality through collisions. In Europe, avian col-lision risk modelling is often a mandatory requirement of the planning phase for wind farms and this will likely also apply to airborne wind energy. However, modelling the collision risk of a kite device presents new challenges since their movement is somewhat more complex than that of wind turbines.
We will present two models to predict the avian colli-sion risk of a rigid-wing kite device. The first uses bird characteristics to assign species-specific collision vulner-ability indices. These are combined with information on recorded mortality rates from power lines (a proxy for the tether) and small aircraft (a proxy for the kite itself) to
pre-dict fatalities per species [1]. The model is based on ob-served fatality rates and is simple to apply. However, it re-lies on the similarity of the collision risk posed by the de-vice to the surrogates used. The second model uses bird flight activity data from the proposed deployment area, and flight path data from the kite device. This model is more complex to implement and cannot readily be val-idated but provides a general framework which can be adapted for different device types and scenarios. We will discuss lessons learned from the wind farm indus-try, current knowledge gaps in collision risk assessment for kite technology, and potential monitoring strategies and validation methodology.
References:
[1] Bruinzeel L., Klop E., Brenninkmeijer A., Bosch J.: Ecological Im-pact of Airborne Wind Energy Technology: Current State of Knowl-edge and Future Research Agenda. In: Schmehl R. (eds) Airborne Wind Energy. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Singapore, pp. 679ś701 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1947-0_28
