A new Dutch invention uses lasers to scare birds away, intended to mitigate their interference with critical industries.
As discussed on Co.Exist by Ben Schiller, birds pose a problem for many industries—they get caught in aircraft engines and wind turbines, eat farmers’ crops, and frustrate greenskeepers. 23-year old Dutch entrepreneur Steinar Henskes developed diffused laser beams intended to scare these birds away from any given location.
Aerolaser, as the product is called, uses "a green, filtered light that reduces radiation. When birds see it, they think of it as a physical danger and immediately scatter..."
For an example of a sector that could use the technological help: "The Federal Aviation Association spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to keep our feathered friends away from flightpaths... New York's JFK Airport, for instance, has about a dozen full-time bird control staff."
So far, Aerolaser has been sold in 46 different places, including the United States of America and many European countries.
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Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research