EnergyOMNI's Perspectives I AI Comes to the Rescue: Tackling Bird-Related Shutdowns at Offshore Wind Farms

Edited by EnergyOMNI

Oslo-based startup Spoor announced in December that it had completed an €8 million (around NT$290 million) Series A investment round. The round was led by European energy technology venture capital firm SET Ventures, with participation from EnBW New Ventures, Ørsted Ventures, and Superorganism, and additional support from Norway's state-owned climate fund Nysnø Climate Investments.

Using AI to Address Bird-Related Curtailment at Offshore Wind Farms

Founded in 2020, Spoor provides real-time bird and bat monitoring software for wind farms. The company has built a database of more than one million bird observations, and its patented computer vision models can be directly integrated into wind farm control systems to detect, classify, and track birds from long distances, with identification down to the species level.

To balance wind energy development with ecological protection, many wind farms rely on radar and imaging systems to monitor bird migration and collision risk. During peak migration periods or high-risk situations, turbines may slow down or shut down entirely. Bird-related curtailment is estimated to reduce annual power generation by 1.5% to 5%, and a single day of shutdown can result in revenue losses of up to €1 million. Spoor aims to address this pain point by training AI models that can currently identify birds up to two kilometers away from turbines.

Partnerships with Multiple Wind Farm Developers

Danish developer Ørsted invested in Spoor during its seed round in 2022 to support the development of its AI system. In Ørsted's 2024 Innovation Report, the company noted that Spoor's AI recognition technology has been deployed at its wind farms in the UK, where it has collected more than 65,000 hours of video footage.

In 2023, Sweden-based developer Vattenfall partnered with Spoor and the British Trust for Ornithology to track the 3D flight paths of seabirds near turbine blades at the Aberdeen Bay Offshore Wind Farm in Scotland. The project aims to better understand how seabirds interact with offshore wind turbines, analyze flight patterns and behavior, and detect potential collision risks. That same year, Spain's Iberdrola conducted a one-year trial with Spoor, testing its migratory bird monitoring technology at the Baltic Eagle Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Germany.

Beyond wind turbines themselves, many Spoor projects place cameras on other infrastructure. In 2024, Deep Wind Offshore announced a partnership with Spoor to install cameras on lighthouses in the Utsira Nord area off the coast of Norway. The data collected is expected to be valuable for future floating offshore wind development in the region. Deep Wind Offshore also plans to deploy Spoor's technology at its project sites in Sweden and South Korea.

In April 2025, Dutch geo-data specialized company Fugro signed a memorandum of understanding with Spoor to use cameras installed on wind farm radar systems and ocean meteorological buoys to record bird activity around wind farms, creating a bird monitoring platform beyond turbine-based systems.

A Growing Ecosystem of AI-Based Bird Monitoring Startups

Spoor is not alone in targeting this market. Several other companies are also leveraging AI to enhance bird monitoring. Danish company DHI has developed MUSE AI, which enables high-precision species identification and can calculate bird flight paths within wind farms. This allows for selective shutdown of individual turbines, ensuring the rest of the wind farm can continue operating.

In 2024, DHI partnered with Robin Radar, MIDO, and Ecowende—a joint venture between Shell, Dutch energy company Eneco, and Japan's Chubu Electric Power—to install Robin Radar systems and DHI sensors on the FLORA 1 floating monitoring platform developed by Spanish company MIDO. The system monitors birds and bats and is expected to be deployed at the Hollandse Kust Offshore Wind Farm, developed by Ecowende and scheduled to begin operations in 2026.

In addition, companies such as Spain's DTBird & DTBat and France's Biodiv-Wind are also developing AI-enabled bird detection and monitoring systems, reflecting growing interest in this emerging field.