Successful implementation of Shutdown on Demand (SOD) at Gabel El Zayt wind farms

Successful implementation of Shutdown on Demand (SOD) at Gabel El Zayt wind farms

Additional Info

  • Date Thursday, 22 November 2018

Last Saturday, November 17th, EEAA - Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, NREA - New & Renewable Energy Authority and MSB - Migratory Soaring Birds Project in Egypt organized a side event at the COP14 CBD - UN Biodiversity Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The purpose of the event was to present the successful cooperation and bird conservation story in Gabel EI-Zayt wind farms, with a special focus on the Shutdown on Demand (SOD) procedure in the wind farms.

Egypt is situated at a critical point along the Red Sea/Rift Valley flyway, where each year around 2 million soaring birds pass through, as they migrate between wintering grounds in Africa and breeding grounds in Europe and Central Asia.

The Gabel El Zayt region (Gulf of Suez ) is considered not only a bottle-neck for migratory birds but also the windiest active site in Egypt, which makes it the most suitable place for wind farm projects.

Studies showed that building wind farms in this region could pose a high risk of bird collision with wind turbines.

Therefore The MSB project proposed the SOD mitigation program as the best mitigation procedure for bird conservation and minimum energy loss, for the Gabel El Zayt wind farms.

EEAA and MSB Project, in collaboration with NREA, established a training centre in Gabel EI Zayt to strengthening the capacity of national bird monitoring team on renewable energy development and its potential impacts of on migratory birds.

STRIX is very proud of being part of this project. We started operating Radar Assisted Turbine Shutdown on Demand and bird migration monitoring program at Gabal al Zayt Wind Farm in 2016.

Since its implementation, the shut down on demand program is being very successful. Shutdown operations, namely the response time, performed generally well and the total equivalent shutdown period is negligible.

Congratulations to our clients and partners for the excellent results!

Know more about our project in Egypt here.

Read more news about this project here: Birdlife International.

Know more about this side event here.