CX-100824 Categorical Exclusion Determination

Eagle Take Minimization System Award Number: DE-EE0007884 CX(s) Applied: A9, B3.2, B3.3 Wind Energy Program Date: 3/2/2017 Location(s): NY Office(s): Golden Field Office

Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance

March 15, 2017
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Eagle Take Minimization System
Award Number: DE-EE0007884
CX(s) Applied: A9, B3.2, B3.3
Wind Energy Program
Date: 3/2/2017
Location(s): NY
Office(s): Golden Field Office

The Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide funding to Laufer Wind Group, LLC (LW) to develop and demonstrate an automated Eagle Take Minimization System that requires no human-in-the-loop to operate effectively and reliably.

LW is proposing to:

• Develop and test an Eagle Take Minimization System at its engineering facility in Bedford, NH. This would include setting up networked radars, cameras, and Central Controller. The system would be performance tested with eagle-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) surrogates.

• Work with National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) engineers and technicians to install an Eagle Take Minimization radar and camera system at NWTC, and integrate the system with the DOE 1.5 MW GE turbine SCADA on the NWTC campus. This would include developing a SCADA software interface between the Eagle Take Minimization System and the NWTC/GE turbine.

• Test the Eagle Take Minimization System at NWTC with live eagles provided by Auburn University Southeast Raptor Center, Auburn AL. The Auburn eagles would be instrumented with GPS to provide ground truth data to compare with system tracking and recognition performance.

• Demonstrate that when eagles are detected, a SCADA alarm to the NWTC/GE turbine could be used to curtail blade rotation, and then restore full blade rotation when eagles are not in range.