The Netherlands halted wind farms on Saturday to protect migratory birds

The Netherlands has for the first time halted offshore wind farms in the North Sea to protect migratory birds. Ornithologists had forecast that millions of birds would migrate over the North Sea last Saturday. The government therefore ordered the wind turbines to be shut down for four hours, it announced on its website on Monday. Similar shutdowns are expected to become more frequent from autumn, DPA reported today.

„This is an international first. Nowhere in the world have offshore wind farms been shut down to protect birds during their mass migration. We want the impact of wind farms on nature to be as small as possible,“ said Dutch Minister for Climate and Energy Rob Jetten.

At the end of last year, a doctoral student at the University of Amsterdam presented a model that predicts bird migration routes based on weather forecasts and bird radar data from the North Sea. It can estimate the movement of flocks two days in advance, giving the power grid operator enough time to ensure grid stability and electricity supplies. The weekend shutdown was a pilot test phase; the measure will officially come into effect this autumn.