A refinement of the Band spreadsheet for wind turbine collision risk allowing for oblique entry

Abstract

A new spreadsheet is presented, to be used as part of the Band model for estimating potential avian mortality due to wind turbine strike. The spreadsheet extends the Band collision risk spreadsheet by allowing for oblique approach angles and wind speed. The differences in the results between this new spreadsheet and the standard Band spreadsheet are given for two species, the white-tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla and the South Island pied oystercatcher Haematopus finschi, chosen for their contrasting sizes and flight characteristics. Under more representative conditions, the true risk for large birds is shown to be substantially greater than that calculated by the Band spreadsheet. Examples of how to use the new spreadsheet with bird survey and wind data are given.

Keywords:

• avian mortality
• Band model
• collision risk
• oblique entry
• wind turbine

Acknowledgements

We thank Gerry Kessels and Phil Whitfield for their encouragement. We also thank Associate Professor Stuart Parsons and two anonymous reviewers for providing comments and useful discussion that helped improve a previous draft.

Associate Editor: Associate Professor Stuart Parsons.

Supplementary data

Spreadsheet S1. Band oblique collision risk.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

B Urquhart http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1758-0641