Smart Curtailment - A Global Perspective

Webinar #13 in WREN Environmental Webinar Series
January 17, 2018, 16:00-17:30 UTC (8:00 am PT/11:00 am ET)

The speakers will discuss smart curtailment from both the European and North American perspective.

Practical  measures to save bats from dying in windfarms: smart curtailment - The European perspective

Luísa Rodrigues, Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests Portugal
Luísa Rodrigues has worked at the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests Portugal since 1987. She works mainly with bats (e.g., conservation, monitoring, impact assessment, public awareness, and applied scientific studies).  She received her Master’s in Conservation of Animal Diversity in 1996 and her PhD in Ecology in 2008. Luísa is the Portuguese Focal Point for EUROBATS, and she coordinates the Intersessional Working Group on Wind Turbines and Bat Populations.

Luísa will discuss practical measures reduce bat fatalities at wind farms: smart curtailment, the European perspective. Between 2003 and 2016, around 8,300 fatalities of at least 28 bat species were found both accidentally and during post-construction monitoring studies in Europe. Taking into consideration this situation, different alternatives to decrease this negative effect will be explained and their implementation in different countries will be analyzed.

Presentation available upon request

Christine Sutter, Natural Power
Christine Sutter is the Head of Environment for Natural Power in the US.  She has worked on bat conservation issues since receiving her Master’s in Life Science and Bat Ecology in 1994. For the last 15 years she has focused almost exclusively on the interactions between wind and wildlife.  During that time she has developed several patented technologies that minimize interactions between wind turbines and bats and condors.  Her current focus is on SCADA-integrated detection and curtailment systems that minimize wildlife fatalities and maximize energy yield.  

Christine will discuss smart curtailment for bats from a US perspective. She will describe a study that utilized real-time bat activity at the nacelle to trigger curtailment in real-time. This approach reduced bat fatalities by >80% and reduced impacts to energy yield by 40%. She will also discuss why bat exposure patterns are expected to make this approach useful and how to model this in advance of implementing smart curtailment.   

A video recording of this webinar is available here:
*Note: Video does not include the second presentation*