Wind is the largest source of renewable energy in the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration, but wind farms come with an environmental cost, as wind turbines can wreak havoc on bird populations. Meet Spoor, the startup using ai to help wind farms mitigate that risk.
Spoor is software that uses machine learning to detect birds on video, while recording their movements 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 impacts on birds, especially in areas with endangered species, but before the vision by ai-enabled computer, there was no good way to do it.
“Regulators' expectations are growing, but the industry doesn't have a great tool,” Helseth said. “Many people go out into the field with binoculars and trained dogs to see how many birds are colliding with the turbines.”
Spoor's system of continuous site monitoring offers a big improvement, Helseth said. Existing wind farms can use the data to better react to bird migration patterns and can slow or even stop wind turbines when avian activity is expected to increase. Companies can also use the technology to monitor potential wind farm sites and assess their risk to local bird populations.
“Wind farms are quite large, many hundreds of square kilometers, and trying to use computer vision to basically monitor the air is an interesting technological challenge,” Helseth said. “We needed to create a scalable technology that could detect birds. “It’s kind of a novel use of computer vision and our own data pipeline.”
The Oslo, Norway-based company just raised a $4 million seed round from investors including Futurum Ventures, Nysnø, and biodiversity-focused VC Superorganism. The round also included Ørsted Ventures, the venture arm of Ørsted, one of the world's largest offshore wind farm companies.
Helseth said they garnered interest from more than 100 investors for the seed round and were very strategic about who they decided to work with. Superorganism was the only company they approached. Kevin Webb, co-founder and CEO of Superorganism, said the company had been following Spoor for a while and was excited about the investment because Spoor fits perfectly with Superorganism's thesis of backing companies that help the planet get to zero emissions without harm nature or biodiversity in the process.
“We saw them from the beginning and from the moment we met them they started working with the largest wind farm developers on the planet,” Webb told TechCrunch. “Ask and his team have hired incredibly well. “Frankly, we were impressed by the progress they had made in building the team.”
The start of Spoor in Norway was a useful factor for the company's progress as Norway has an advanced wind farm program. Additionally, Europe has higher adoption of wind energy compared to the United States, Helseth said. But the company has its eye on expanding to the US, which should be a windfall in itself.
The United States government has a aggressive target to reach 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, offering a huge opportunity for companies like Spoor. Any company that wants to install a wind farm in the US has to comply with the guidelines of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and ensure that its wind farms do not violate laws such as the Endangered Species Act. or the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Regulators are particularly strict in the US about how wind turbines could affect American bald eagle populations. Helseth added that she has seen wind farms delayed or not built due to issues they face related to native bird populations.
Spoor is not the only one using ai computer vision to solve the problem. Others include Woolnorth Renewables and Robin Radar.
Still, Helseth hopes Spoor can help break some of those bottlenecks and be a positive, growing factor in moving the industry forward.
“We are still a small company, so to speak, but we have interest from all over the world, the industry is hungry for our solutions,” Helseth said.
