Good news from a long-term experiment in Norway: painting a single blade of a power-generating windmill may reduce fatal birdstrikes by as much as 70%.
This is certainly an experiment that bears replication, especially at facilities that (1) keep careful records of birdstrikes and (2) care enough to make the effort. It’s pretty sad that the Norwegians spent 7 years on this, and few other researchers got on board with it. If this were clinical research for a debilitating disease, mobs would be clamoring for more trials. Bird conservationists should be outraged at the pace. Of course, they’re not even willing to take on the Cat Mafia, so what do you expect?
More sadness in the comments to the linked article above. Way too much obligatory throat-clearing about Orange Man Bad and “conservatives hate windmills,” and far too little optimism about a potential inexpensive improvement with environmental benefits. And pretty much zero recognition that wind power will ALWAYS be intermittent, never free of baseload power generation from other “scary” sources.
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