The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded approximately $1 million for a research project designed to test Normandeau’s Turbine Integrated Mortality Reduction (TIMRSM), approach to smart curtailment for the protection of bats at wind energy facilities.
The TIMRSM, smart curtailment approach, which was jointly developed by Normandeau and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), monitors real-time bat activity and wind speed at wind energy facilities and sends instructions to curtail the operation of turbines when bats are detected in the area. In a previous study, this approach reduced bat fatalities by about 80% and reduced curtailment time by almost 50% compared to approaches using only wind speed to determine when turbines were curtailed.
In this DOE funded project Normandeau and EPRI are partnering with American Wind Wildlife Institute (AWWI), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Bat Conservation International (BCI), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to further test the TIMR SM, smart curtailment approach at another U.S. wind energy facility in an effort to improve the study design and further customize the TIMR SM, system. This research project will be funded by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Wind Energies Technology Office.
More information on this DOE award can be found here: https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-department-awards-6-million-wind-energy-research-projects
