New technology to be trialed to protect eagles at Cattle Hill Wind Farm

Goldwind Australia announced today that it will be installing the innovative IdentiFlight® aerial monitoring and detection technology system as one of the key initiatives to mitigate Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle impacts at Cattle Hill Wind Farm in the Central Highlands of Tasmania.

IdentiFlight’s tower-mounted optical units are designed to detect flying objects and then use algorithms to identify them as eagles within seconds. If an eagle’s speed and flight path indicate a risk of collision with a wind turbine, an alert is generated to shut down the specific wind turbine.

Sixteen IdentiFlight units are to be installed at the Cattle Hill Wind Farm. The location of the towers is designed so they will be able to detect eagles and shut down any of the 48 turbines as necessary.

John Titchen, Goldwind Managing Director, said Cattle Hill Wind Farm will be the first wind farm in Australia to trial this newly available innovative aerial monitoring and detection technology.

‘Goldwind Australia understands the importance of balancing the need for clean, renewable energy whilst protecting Tasmania’s unique wildlife, particularly the endangered Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle.

Goldwind is very pleased to have partnered with Identiflight to apply this recently developed innovative technology to reduce impacts on the Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle.

We look forward to sharing the results of this first Australian trial following installation.’ said John.

President of Identiflight, Tom Hiester, said IdentiFlight is pleased to be partnering with Goldwind.

‘We developed IdentiFlight to promote the successful coexistence of avian wildlife and wind energy. Results from IdentiFlight trials on wind farms in the US have demonstrated its effectiveness in mitigating impacts on the iconic bald and golden eagles.’ said Tom.

Construction of the Cattle Hill Wind Farm commenced earlier this year and is progressing well with the first wind turbine foundation expected to be poured shortly.

Once operational, the wind farm will power approximately 63,500 Tasmanian homes. This increases Tasmania’s on-island renewable energy generation capacity by approximately 5 per cent and contributes to Tasmania’s ambitious target of becoming fully self-sufficient with renewable energy by 2022.