The owners and operators of the wind farms in the Kaliakra Protected Area join efforts to set up an Early Warning System for the Protection of Birds

April 24, 2018

Twelve Bulgarian wind farm owners and operators, located in the Kaliakra Protected Area, close to the town of Kavarna in Bulgaria, united their efforts in creating a uniform Early Warning System for bird protection. The purpose of this system is to preserve wild birds included in Annex I to Directive 2009/147 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of Europe on the preservation of wild birds that are protected under the Protected Areas Order. The integrated system minimizes the risk of bird collisions with rotating parts of the wind generators by stopping single turbines or entire wind farms and implements a monitoring program during the risk periods for species of conservation significance.

In order to ensure the independence and objectivity of the measures taken, the companies which established the Integrated Birds Protection System have hired a specialized ornithological consulting company, which has the necessary professional expertize to carry out effective bird monitoring and protection activities, and has many years of experience in this field.

The system integrates information from several radar systems and applies a common monitoring of the entire protected area. Ornithologists, in addition to radar data, monitor birds in the area, assess potential hazards and, where necessary, issue turbine shutdown orders on a daily basis.

The Early Warning System already has its own website (www.kaliakrabirdmonitoring.eu), which publishes weekly and monthly newsletters and seasonal activity reports. In this specially created directory, information on bird species observed in the protected zone, their number, as well as the date and duration of each turbine shut down can be found.