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Wind turbines are popping up across Vermont and beyond to answer demands for a more sustainable energy system, but they also threaten some of the animal species that live and fly around them.
Wildlife Imaging Systems, based in Hinesburg, is striving to temper these risks — particularly the potential damage of windmills’ long blades to bats and birds. The company develops thermal imaging technology that monitors the airspace around wind turbines to detect the presence of wildlife.
Now, Wildlife Imagine Systems is looking to expand its coverage. Its owners are looking for new areas where they can study the impacts turbines have on bats in order to diversify their research.
The company has set up its technology around 15 onshore wind farm projects throughout the United States and plans to bring its systems to offshore wind farms in Europe next year, according to Brogan Morgan, the company’s CEO. The move reflects a goal to protect as many mammals as possible amid the global push to improve energy efficiency. In the United States, the Department of Energy has set a standard for the energy industry of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, and wind turbines will play a major role in that effort.
Morgan and other Wildlife Imaging Systems representatives came to the Vermont Tech Jam in Burlington in October to talk to attendees about their field work and plans for the future. Held at Hula, a technology innovation center on the Lake Champlain waterfront, Tech Jam is an annual job fair that connects workers in the tech sector with companies that want to hire them. In an open atrium lit by pink and white fluorescent lights, Wildlife Imaging Systems set up a huge monitor with thermal imaging to demonstrate its technology, which attracted a big crowd.
With four current full-time employees, Wildlife Imaging Systems is still in its nascent stage but expects steady growth in its unfilled niche. The company has received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop its sensor technology.
Bats rely on echolocation to navigate in the air, reflecting sound off objects in order to identify physical boundaries that may impact their flight. They have difficulty sensing
wind turbine blades because they travel at such high speeds — about a quarter of the speed of sound —and because the long blades extend so far.
“Unfortunately, this has led to an ever-increasing bat mortality rate and brings up many questions about the impact these turbines have on our bat species,” Morgan said in an interview during Tech Jam.
Wildlife Imaging Systems uses its software to track bat flight patterns and nightly activity around the turbines. The software records about 15 hours of video per night from June until October in different sites across the United States. It applies machine learning to analyze the activity of bats and determine the density of bat populations around turbines under a variety of conditions — whether warm and calm, windy or rainy nights.
The goal is to decrease bat deaths by stopping the turbines from running during peak bat hours, Morgan explained.
If the windmills have to stop at night, when bat traffic is heavier, they can’t produce renewable energy for the grid at that time. Neither can solar panels, which depend on sunlight, not available at night. Wildlife Imaging Systems is trying to work around this drastic drop in turbine efficiency while still preserving the lives of bats in the area.
At Tech Jam, attendees gathered to check out what thermal imaging looks like on the monitor and chat with Morgan. A camera pointed at visitors, who could watch themselves move around in thermal-imaging outlines on the big screen. Another screen had images the company’s sensors had recorded of bats flying around.
The display caught the attention of John Williams, a student in computer science at the University of Vermont, who took an interest in Wildlife Imaging Systems’ work.
“They are using computing to do something noble, to minimize the impact on our environment,” Williams said, speaking for himself and a friend who came with him. “We’re big fans of using computing for good.”