Politicians who lobby against the renewable energy industry often use the death toll of birds at wind farms as a way to argue against wind energy. But apparently, there’s a simple solution to reduce the number of deaths that happen at the blades of wind turbines: black paint.
According to a 9-year study conducted at a wind farm on the Norwegian archipelago of Smøla, changing the color of a single blade on a turbine from white to black resulted in a 70-percent drop in the number of bird deaths.
Wind power is surging right now, with more than 60GW of new generating capacity added worldwide in 2019. As long as you put the turbines in the right spot, wind power is reliably cheaper than burning fossil fuels. And most people would prefer to live next to a wind farm than any other kind of power plant—even solar.
Fix the problem of bird deaths occurring at wind farms, and the appeal widens even more.
