It's hard to ascertain how many birds fly into the spinning blades of wind turbines and die as a result – and indeed, the topic is so politically charged that I'd recommend a radiation suit before even googling it. The American Bird Conservancy has waded through some of the available evidence and come to the conclusion that at least one million bird deaths a year in the US alone is likely to be an underestimate.

Now, that's substantially less than the estimated 25.5 million birds a year that kill themselves by flying into overhead power lines, or the estimated 980 million per year that die crashing into buildings, or the 1.4 to 3.7 billion per year killed by domestic cats. But it's still an unacceptable number, and a problem that needs to be addressed – because a fully green energy network will need more and more turbines over the coming decades.

Researchers at SINTEF and the Norwegian Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research believe they have an idea that could help in a lot of cases.

The idea is fairly simple: each turbine will have cameras fitted, capable of spotting birds flying directly into the path of the rotors. Software will automatically calculate their predicted trajectory, and if it looks like they're in danger of being hit, the system will send control signals to slow the blades down, by adjusting the generator moment and blade twist.

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