Safe flyway in Egypt: How did mortality rate of migrating birds over wind power farms decline to 1% ?

CAIRO - 10 October 2022: The mortality rate of the migratory birds monitored during their fly over Egypt’s wind power farms recorded 1 percent of the total number of observed birds annually, said Egyptian Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad.

This was driven by the measures adopted by the Ministry of Evironment and the state-owned renewable energy authority to protect migratory birds in Egypt, where about 2 million birds fly over the country in their migration journeys to warmer destinations, especially in the fall and the winter.

"No country across the world could reach zero mortality of birds in the presence of wind power stations,” the minister said in comments to Egypt Today on the sidelines of a regional conference on “Safe Flyways: Conference on Energy and Birds,” on Saturday, which also marks the World Day of Migratory Birds.

Without the ministry's protection measures, the rate of bird mortality could have reached 30 percent along the Red Sea due to the presence of wind power farms, according to the minister.

“Egypt was awarded the first African prize 3 years ago for protecting the flyways from Upper Egypt’s Aswan to the Red Sea,” said the minister.

On a similar note, Osama el-Gebaly, the head of the Migartory Soaring Birds project at the Ministry of Environment, told Egypt Today that Egypt monitors about 500,000 to 600,000 migratory birds flying over renewable power plants annually, noting that the largest monitored number of carcasses reached 50 birds per year.

Additionally, Ayman Hamada, head of the Biodiversity Central Department at the Ministry of Environment, affirmed to Egypt Today on the sidelines of the conference that the monitoring process is being conducted all day long, but the number of swarms that fly over Egypt at night could be higher.

“The issue of protecting migratory birds and biodiversity is one of the most pressing global and regional environmental challenges that Egypt is keen to address during the Cop27 conference, as it also reflects the interdependence in achieving balance between environmental conventions on biodiversity and the state’s national plan to address the effects of climate change and emissions reduction,” the minister further stated.

Minister Fouad added that bird migration faces a number of other challenges, such as poaching, tourism and solid waste. To better address these issues, the ministry cooperated with the tourism sector to train the sector's employees on the importance of protecting the migratory birds, and recognizing the bird-watching tourism as a source of income. The minister also revealed that the COP 27 conference, set to convene in Sharm El-Sheikh on November 6-18, will be a point for watching birds.

As for the solid waste, the ministry was keen to provide a very clean and safe flyway for the migratory birds to alleviate these challenges.

How is Egypt working on migratory bird protection?

"The Red Sea flyway is the second important route for migratory birds, and the establishment of any wind power farm could have caused higher numbers of deaths among the birds due to collision or electrocution," said Osama el-Gebaly, the head of the Migartory Soaring Birds project at the Ministry of Environment.

Gebaly added that an integrated cooperation with the energy sector was a must to establish the wind power farms necessary for development and protect the environment at the same time. To achieve this goal, the ministry has put protective environmental guidelines for the energy sector in 2013, updated the criterion of shutdown-on-demand of wind turbines for migrating birds, and created training programs on bird protection for the energy sector's employees.

According to Gebaly, the ministry deployed two radars at Gabel El-Zeit Wind farm complex in the Suez Gulf to cover three wind power stations. The radar gives a prior warning signal of coming birds to observers at the station’s control room, who in turn respond with shutting down some turbines for a short period of time until the birds pass safely.

"The radar and the shutdown-on-demand solution were used for the first time in 2015 at Gabal El-Zeit wind farm in cooperation with a Portuguese company, stated Ihab Ismail, vice chairman for Research Technical Affairs New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), in his speech at the conference. He also said that it took 3 whole minutes to stop the turbines in the beginning of the project, while it only takes 15 seconds now, thanks to all the practice and hard work.

Ismail clarified that the west coast of the Suez Gulf, especially Ras Ghareb, was a suitable place for establishing wind plants due to its constant, high-speed winds, which leads to high production. To benefit from this location while preserving the environment, radars were used to monitor the birds 10 kilometers away from the wind turbine. "Those who are working on the radar system are being mandated to other Arab countries to transfer their experiences," Ismail continued.

Ismail told Egypt Today that protecting migrating birds has a negligible impact on electricity production, stressing that this is a success in terms of preserving the environment, and optimizing the benefits of renewable energy.

Recently, the ministry updated its guidelines and recommended putting sensors at the turbines of wind power farms to better monitor the moves of migratory birds and automatically shut down. These recommendations were discussed by the ministry and the BirdLife International, according to Minister Fouad, who also noted that this new technology would allow establishing wind turbines at great heights, consequently providing high-quality production.

Expanding protection scope across the region

On World Migratory Bird Day that falls on October 8, the BirdLife International signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the Arab Union of Electricity and the Arab Renewable Energy Commission, under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment on Saturday.

The signing ceremony was organized by the BirdLife international on the sidelines of a regional conference “to ensure closer ties and mutual understanding between the energy industry and the conservation community along the African-Eurasian Flyway towards a win-win relationship between nature conservations and energy infrastructures along the flyway,” said the ministry.

Birdlife international is a partner with the Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE) and the Migratory Soaring Birds Project (MSB) at the Ministry of Environment. Several projects have been funded by international donors, such as the Egyptian Vulture New LIFE project, which is funded by the European Union, according to Director of the BirdLife International Middle East Office Ibrahim Khader.

“We hope that this conference is an entrance for more cooperation partners from private and public sectors, to protect nature on the domestic and regional levels,” Khader added.

For his part, Nasser al-Mohannadi, secretary-general of Arab Union of Electricity, confirmed that the aims of this partnership is exchanging experiences and protecting the environment.

Meanwhile, Mohammed al-Ta'ani, the general manager of Jordanian Renewable Energy Society (JRES) and Secretary General of Arab Renewable Energy Commission (AREC), said in his speech that the volume of investments in renewable energy in the Arab world will reach $1 trillion in 2040, and this figure is quite big, so it is required that all NGOs be responsible for protecting the environment and the wild life and preventing encroachment.