Cattle Hill Wind Farm unveils hi-tech bid to reduce endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle deaths

A $300m wind farm taking shape in Tasmania’s Central Highlands will introduce innovative technology to help reduce the number of wedge-tailed eagle deaths attributed to power infrastructure.

THE Cattle Hill Wind Farm taking shape in the Central Highlands will introduce innovative technology to help reduce the number of wedge-tailed eagle deaths attributed to Tasmanian infrastructure.

Cattle Hill Wind Farm proponent Goldwind Australia today announced it would install an aerial monitoring and detection technology system at the $300 million project site in a bid to mitigate the impact on the endangered wedge-tailed eagle population.

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The tower-mounted technology by IdentiFlight is designed to detect and photograph flying objects and then use algorithms to identify them as eagles.

If an eagle’s speed and flight path indicate a risk of collision with a turbine, a generated alert will shut down the specific turbine.

Raptor Refuge founder Craig Webb holds a wedge-tailed eagle, fully rehabilitated after sustaining soft tissue damage caused by collision with overhead power lines. Picture: KIM EISZELE

Goldwind managing director John Titchen said the innovative technology, which would involve 16 units being deployed across the sites 48 turbines, was a first of its kind in Australia.

“Goldwind is very pleased to have partnered with IdentiFlight to apply this recently developed innovative technology to reduce impacts on the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle population,” he said.

“We look forward to sharing the results of this first Australian trial following installation.”

Birdlife Tasmania’s Dr Eric Woehler said any proposal to protect the life of an endangered species was welcomed, but the new technology’s only measure of success would be if no eagles were killed.

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“Anything that can reduce the risk of collision has to be welcomed because we’re seeing increasing incidents of wind turbines in Tasmania killing birds and we don’t want the generation of clean, green energy to come at the cost of wiping out an endangered species,” he said.

BirdLife Tasmania convenor Dr Eric Woehler says we don’t want the generation of clean, green energy to come at the cost of wiping out an endangered species.

“The benchmark of success with this project is the absence of eagles killed over the lifetime of the wind farm.

“Let’s look at it in a year’s time to see if there’s been no eagles killed.”

Assessments in previous decades have indicated the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle population is declining and made up of fewer than 1000 adult birds.

Dr Woehler’s concerns come after TasNetworks released an annual report in August revealing 29 wedge-tailed eagles were found dead after coming into contact with electrical network infrastructure.

Construction of the Cattle Hill Wind Farm started earlier this year, with the first wind turbine expected to be raised soon.

Once operational, it will generate enough power to supply about 63,500 Tasmanian homes.

The development is expected to boost Tasmania’s renewable energy generation capacity by about five per cent, contributing to the State Government’s target to become fully self-sufficient by 2022.