Bird Protection Zones in a Wind Park by Ka-Band Radar Surveillance: Field Results from the Wind Testing Site WINSENT

In this paper, we report on a newly developed 34 GHz radar system and its field application in the wind energy testing site WINSENT on the Swabian Alb (Germany). The envisaged sensor system addresses the early detection of birds for a bird-friendly wind turbine operation. In this way, wind turbines could be adaptively controlled to reduce the collision risk of endangered species. Besides the description of the radar sensor and its characterization in the laboratory, we also demonstrate the system implementation using three Ka-band radar units. Bird detection results are presented along with a synchronized camera-based validation.