Transcript:
To help bats and wind turbines coexist, researchers took inspiration from moths.
Bats have a keen sense of echolocation, but for some reason they don't avoid turbines. Some species are even facing population declines due to wind turbine strikes.
To find ways to deter bats, researchers are learning from the bats' prey. When a tiger moth encounters a bat, it emits a high-frequency signal that is thought to interfere with the bat's sonar.
Fritz: “So people took that as an idea and built these bat deterrents that emitted high-frequency noise, thinking that maybe it would interfere with the bats' echolocation.”
Sarah Fritts of Texas State University is testing bat deterrents in a flight cage the size of an Olympic swimming pool.
She found that the devices were very effective for certain species.
Fritz: “That’s great. However, the physics of sound—those high-frequency sounds don’t travel very far.
Wind turbines are getting bigger and their blades are getting longer. Therefore, devices on turbine towers may not emit a strong enough signal to deter bats away from the tips of the blades.
So researchers are developing systems that can be installed directly on blades so that bats can be better protected as the wind energy industry grows.
Report source: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media
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