The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched a four-year trial to paint the wind turbines after officials raised concerns that the government’s plan to increase turbine numbers in the North Sea could spell danger for seabirds.
In the US, Donald Trump has signed an executive order pausing all wind energy projects and pushed for deregulation of the fossil fuel industry, and has previously expressed concern about wind turbines’ impact on birds.
Trump has been raising concerns about wind turbines since 2011, when North Sea windfarms were first proposed in view of his golf course in Aberdeen.
A study in Norway which examined the effects of dyeing one wind turbine blade black found it resulted in a 70% fall in associated bird deaths.
Limited research has been conducted on the number of birds killed this way, but estimates range from four to 18 per turbine per year.
