Balancing winds of change with the wings of life

POWERFUL gusts shook an observation post perched on a hill at a wind farm in South Africa as two monitors scanned the landscape through binoculars.

- 

ROB Simmons of the University of Cape Town speaks about the project to paint wind turbines with red stripes to make the blades more visible to birds to prevent bird-strikes, at Hopefield Wind Farm in Hopefield.

(AFP)

The Overberg mountains stretched along the horizon, but the monitors — bundled in scarves — were focused on activity much closer: around a giant wind turbine, a small, dark silhouette had appeared.

“Stop turbine 11, please. Cape vulture,” one said into a walkie-talkie.

“Stopping turbine 11,” came the reply.

Immediately, the blades of the 150-metre turbine began to slow, coming to a complete stop in less than a minute.

BirdLife South Africa estimates that every year an average 4.25 birds are killed per wind turbine, most often when they fly into blades that can reach speeds of up to 280 kilometres (175 miles) per hour.