Guidance published today – Joint advice note from the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (SNCBs) regarding bird collision risk modelling for offshore wind developments – provides updated advice to help the offshore wind industry in assessing the risk of seabird collision with wind turbines.
Birds that overlap in space with windfarms may be at risk of collision with the rotating turbine blades. Some species are more at risk than others and this risk depends on factors such as flight heights, flight agility, and degree to which individuals avoid either individual turbines or whole windfarms.
In order to understand this risk, a collision risk model (CRM) is used to predict the number of individuals of any given species which are expected to collide with a proposed windfarm each year.
The guidance, published by JNCC, Natural England, Natural Resource Wales and NatureScot, updates advice on undertaking collision risk modelling to better understand the estimated collision risk, including updated avoidance rates, which accounts for birds taking action to avoid collision.
This guidance is intended to help the offshore wind farm industry to apply available evidence on collision risk within their Environmental Impact Assessment, as we move towards decarbonising our economy and meet net zero targets.
The Joint advice note is available from JNCC's Resource Hub.