DeTect, the developer of a radar system designed to prevent bird strikes at wind farms, says it has installed its MERLIN Avian Radar System at the C-Power Offshore Wind Farm in Belgium.
After the company completed a year of shore-based avian studies, it installed the bird radar system at its permanent location at the wind farm substation on Thornton Bank, DeTect says.
The MERLIN Avian Radar System was purchased by the management unit of North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM), a division of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and was delivered to Belgium in January 2011 to collect data on bird activity along the coast at Zebrugge.
MUMM studies the effects of offshore wind parks on all forms of sea life, but of particular concern at this wind project was the terns nesting on the mainland and flying out to the shoals to feed, DeTect explains. In March, DeTect radar technicians transferred the MERLIN radar system from its mobile trailer to the C-Power platform.
The offshore wind farm comprises 56 5.6 MW turbines that stand 158 meters above sea level with rotor swept diameters of 63-64 meters.
