Project Summary:
• Location: 15 km off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the North Sea.
• Turbines: 5 Vestas V164 (9.5 MW, installed 2021) equipped with the DTBird® V8N2 system to record avian activity and potential collisions, day and night. The first phase of the project included 1 Vestas V80 (2 MW installed in 2018) also equipped with DTBird®.
• DTBird®V8N2 (model 2021): 8 Daylight cameras covering 360º horizontal x 90º vertical and 2 thermal cameras. Precursor of the current DTBird® Albatross.
What is Condition 22ai?
Condition 22ai requires post-consent monitoring of bird–turbine collision risk. Regulators demand empirical data —via video recording, radar, or AI— that confirm or refine the original environmental impact predictions.
NatureScot feedback:
“In conclusion, we agree with the statement in the report that the DTBird system has fulfilled the project’s collision monitoring objectives in providing reliable and robust video data on avoidance, activity and collision in the offshore environment and in the challenging context of moving, floating WTGs.
"The videos also show the behaviors of the birds as they approach and interact with the WTG, and these high collision risk or reaction-induced flight videos could form a valuable research resource in observing bird interactions with offshore wind turbines.”
Impact & Next Steps
This approval underscores KOWL’s and DTBird’s cooperation in this highly demanding marine setting with floating offshore wind turbines and proves the efficacy of DTBird to reduce the uncertainty about the potential collision risk of offshore wind farms and be a step forward for KOWL’s future offshore projects.
