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SWELLENDAM: Powerful gusts shook an observation post perched on a hill at a wind farm in South Africa as two monitors scanned the landscape through binoculars.
The Overberg mountains stretched along the horizon, but the monitors — bundled in scarves — were focused on activity much closer: around a giant wind turbine, a small, dark silhouette had appeared.
“Stop turbine 11, please. Cape vulture,” one said into a walkie-talkie. “Stopping turbine 11,” came the reply.
Immediately, the blades of the 150-meter (500-feet) turbine began to slow, coming to a complete stop in less than a minute.
BirdLife South Africa estimates that every year an average 4.25 birds are killed per wind turbine, most often when they fly into blades that can reach speeds of up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) per hour.
With more than 1,400 turbines operating across South Africa, an estimated 6,000 birds die this way a year, the group says. Ten percent are endangered species.
To mitigate the impact, Excelsior Wind Farm has implemented a Shutdown on Demand Protocol that prioritizes six vulnerable species, including the Cape vulture and endangered black harrier.
When monitors spot one, “they inform the control room via radio and that’s when they will turn off the turbine,” said conservationist Clarissa Mars, who oversees the program at the farm 200 kilometers east of Cape Town.
“That takes approximately 43 seconds,” she told AFP.
“There were less than eight fatalities for the site in approximately five years,” Mars said. “And I’m just very happy knowing there were no fatalities this year.”
The Stop on Demand Protocol — developed in the late 2010s, notably in Kenya — has been adopted worldwide and was introduced at Excelsior in 2020.
Its impact on energy output at its small operation of 13 turbines has been negligible, said site manager Jacques Redelinghuys.
“We’ve lost less than 0.5 percent of revenue due to the program,” he said. “And on days like today, when we do produce more due to our high wind speed, we make up for the losses that we incurred.”

- Extinction by wind farm? -

While the shutdown protocol has saved some species from the blades at Excelsior, such as the Cape vulture, it has been less effective for the black harrier, a critically endangered bird of which only around 1,300 remain in the world.
The smaller bird is harder for the monitors to spot, conservationist Odette Curtis-Scott said.
The Overberg region is a vital breeding ground for the black harrier, but 95 percent of its natural habitat here has been lost to agriculture, she said.
This forces the bird to travel further in search of water and prey, increasing the risks of colliding with turbines.
“It’s not ideal that the wind farm is where it is,” said Curtis-Scott, who heads the Overberg Renosterveld Trust.
In early 2025, the trust bought land five kilometers from Excelsior where there is a black harrier colony and about 40 return to breed each year.
Despite the efforts, around 13 black harriers have been killed at South Africa’s more than 30 wind farms in the past decade, according to University of Cape Town professor Rob Simmons.
“If we were to kill an extra three to five adult black harriers per year through wind farms, the population will go extinct within 75 to 100 years,” he said.
“It’s one of the first species in South Africa, possibly even in Africa, for which we know that wind farms can have a direct effect on the potential extinction.”
Another potential solution to this “green-green dilemma” is painting turbine blades, Simmons said.
“Birds do not see black and white contrasts as well as we do,” he said. “They, therefore, do not see a white blade spinning against a cloudy sky. This is very likely why they do not avoid it.”
An experiment at a wind farm 90 kilometers north of Cape Town, where blades were painted with bold red stripes, resulted in a 87 percent drop in bird mortality over two years, he said.
“We cannot continue burning fossil fuels,” he said. “Some species, like the black harrier, will not survive climate change. But we also cannot sacrifice numerous birds on the altar of renewable energy.”

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is set to embark on a major trip to Asia this week with all eyes on an expected meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping that has huge implications for the global economy.
Trump said on Wednesday he was making a “big trip” to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first visit to the region since he returned to the White House in a blaze of tariffs and geopolitical brinkmanship.
Much of the trip remains shrouded in uncertainty. The White House has given almost no details, and Trump has warned that his anticipated sit-down with Xi in South Korea may not even happen amid ongoing tensions.
But Trump has made it clear he hopes to seal a “good” deal with China and end a bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has caused global shockwaves.
The host nations are meanwhile set to roll out the red carpet to ensure they stay on the right side of the unpredictable 79-year-old, and win the best deals they can on tariffs and security assistance.
Malaysia and Japan
His first stop is expected to be Malaysia for the October 26-28 summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — a grouping Trump skipped several times in his first term.
Trump is set to ink a trade deal with Malaysia — but more importantly to oversee the signing of a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia, as he continues his quest for a Nobel Peace Prize.
“President Trump is keen to see the more positive results of the peace negotiations between Thailand and Cambodia,” Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday.
The US leader may also meet Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the summit to improve ties after months of bad blood, officials from both countries told AFP.
Trump’s next stop is expected to be Tokyo where he will be able to meet conservative Sanae Takaichi, named this week as Japan’s first woman prime minister.
Japan has escaped the worst of the tariffs Trump slapped on countries around the world to end what he calls unfair trade balances that are “ripping off the United States.”
At the same time, Trump wants Japan to halt Russian energy imports and has also urged Tokyo to follow Western allies in increasing defense spending.
Xi in South Korea?
But the climax of the trip is expected to be in South Korea, where Trump is due to arrive on October 29 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit — and potentially meet Xi.
The first meeting between the two leaders since Trump’s return to office could smooth over the trade war between Washington and Beijing — but Beijing’s rare earth curbs have also infuriated Trump.
Trump initially threatened to cancel the meeting and imposed fresh tariffs, before saying he would go ahead after all. But he added on Tuesday that still “maybe it won’t happen.”
He said on Wednesday that he hoped to make a deal with Xi on “everything” and also hoped the Chinese leader could have a “big influence” on getting Russia’s Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine war.
Analysts warned not to expect any breakthroughs.
“The meeting will be a data point along an existing continuum rather than an inflection point in the relationship,” said Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution.
South Korea, seeking its own trade deal, is reportedly considering the rare step of awarding Trump the Grand Order of Mugunghwa — the country’s highest decoration — during his visit.
North Korea will also be on the agenda. The country fired multiple ballistic missiles on Wednesday, just days before Trump was due to visit.
Trump has said he hopes to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following several meetings during the US president’s first term, but there has been no confirmation of reports that the White House was looking at a new meeting this time.