According to estimates, wind is the largest source of renewable energy in the United States United States Energy Information Administration, but wind farms come at an environmental cost, as wind turbines can wreak havoc on bird populations. To get to know Cluea startup that uses artificial intelligence to help wind farms reduce this risk.
Spoor is software that uses machine learning to detect birds on video while also recording their movement and predicting their flight patterns. Spoor co-founder and CEO Ask Helseth told TechCrunch that government regulations in several countries require wind farms to monitor and track their impact on birds, especially in areas with endangered species, but before the advent of AI-enabled computer vision there was no good solutions. way to do it.
“Regulatory expectations are rising, but the industry doesn’t have a perfect tool,” Helseth said. “Quite a lot of people [go out] in the field with binoculars and trained dogs to learn how many birds collide with turbines.”
Helseth said Spoor’s continuous site monitoring system is a significant improvement. Existing wind farms can use data to higher respond to bird migration patterns and can slow or even stop wind turbines when increased bird activity is expected. Companies may use the technology to monitor potential wind farm locations and assess the risk they pose to local bird populations.
“Wind farms are quite huge, covering many hundreds of square kilometers, and trying to use computer vision for basic air monitoring is an interesting technological challenge,” Helseth said. “We had to create scalable technology to detect birds. This is kind of a cutting-edge use of computer vision and our own data pipeline.”
The Oslo, Norway-based company just raised a $4 million seed round from investors including Nysnø-based Futurum Ventures and biodiversity-focused VC Superorganism. Ørsted Ventures, a subsidiary of Ørsted, one of the world’s largest offshore wind corporations, also participated in this round.
Helseth said greater than 100 investors were interested in the seed round and were very strategic about who they selected to work with. Superorganism was the only company they turned to. Kevin Webb, co-founder and managing director of Superorganism, said the company had been following Spoor for some time and was excited about the investment because Spoor suits perfectly with Superorganism’s thesis of supporting corporations that help the planet achieve zero gas emissions without harming nature or biodiversity including process.
“We observed them very early on, and by the time we got to know them, they had started working with some of the largest wind farm developers in the world,” Webb told TechCrunch. “Ask and his team have hired incredibly well. Honestly, we were impressed with the progress they made in building the team.”
The launch of Spoora’s operations in Norway was a helpful factor in the development of as Norway has an advanced wind farm program. Additionally, Europe is making greater use of wind energy compared to the United States, Helseth said. However, the company is planning to expand into the United States, which needs to be a windfall in itself.
The US government does aggressive goal achieving 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capability by 2030, which represents a huge opportunity for corporations like Spoor. Any company that wishes to build a wind farm in the U.S. must follow U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines and make sure its wind farms do not violate laws comparable to the Endangered Species Act or the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In the US, regulators are particularly rigorous in assessing the impact of wind turbines on the bald eagle population. Helseth added that he has seen wind farms delayed or not built at all because of problems with native bird populations.
Spoor is not the only company using AI machine vision to solve the problem. IdentiFlight is one other company looking to use artificial intelligence to solve the problem.
Still, Helseth hopes Spoor will help break down some of those bottlenecks and turn out to be a growing, positive factor driving the industry forward.
“We are still a small company per se, but we have worldwide interest and the industry is hungry for our solutions,” Helseth said.