Dispositivo para reduzir os impactos gerados por usinas eólicas na quiropterofauna

Abstract

Wind power plants allow energy generation to occur in a renewable way, cooperate with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and have advantageous characteristics from the social, environmental and economic perspectives. However, considering that any change in a natural environment tends to affect the local ecosystem, there are impacts caused by such projects that must be considered. Among them, the way they affect the chiropterofauna of the region where they are located stands out. Bats are attracted to the proximity of generators and can collide with structures or even suffer internal injuries due to pressure changes caused by moving components. This document presents research that develops a device to attract bats to regions adjacent to wind farms, in order to induce them not to remain in risky places. To this end, we sought to understand the process in question, the existing solutions and develop the design, prototyping and testing of the device to reduce the impacts of wind farms on such animals. The premises were raised, the concepts defined, the options listed and the solution chosen. With the winning design selected, the prototyping of the device was started, both in 3D software and in physical modeling. The operation of the equipment was proven and its effectiveness justified in the literature based on the effectiveness of the selected attractive principle, already tested and proven in the field. The project was presented as viable and the objective of attracting the bats was inferred as satisfied in the developed prototype.