Offshore staff
THE NETHERLANDS — Shutting down a wind farm to protect migratory birds? Last weekend TenneT did this for the first time in the world, according to the company.
Windmills at sea near Borssele and Egmond aan zee were virtually shut down for several hours after a massive bird migration over the North Sea was predicted, TenneT posted on its LinkedIn. This prediction is made two days in advance via a bird migration prediction model by the University of Amsterdam. The model uses weather data at the departure locations of the migratory birds and various bird radars in the North Sea. The time is used to inform those involved and to carefully initiate the shutdown of the turbines.
TenneT says its teams use this time to guarantee the stability of the high-voltage grid. The shutdown of the wind turbines is part of the pilot phase in which it is checked whether everything goes as intended: from predicting to stopping the windmills. The measure will officially take effect next autumn. From then on, TenneT says it will continuously monitor and improve.
This procedure was developed by the Rijkswaterstaat government agency on behalf of the Netherlands' Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy with, among others, the wind farm owners, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; the Society for the Protection of Birds, Netherlands; De Rijke Noordzee and TenneT.
