NAM and Philips help birds migrate safely across North Sea

Amsterdam/Assen, The Netherlands – Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG, AEX:PHI) and NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij) have developed a new type of lighting, which radiates only a limited part of the colour spectrum. Due to the resulting unique colour, the lighting on offshore platforms less distracts birds during their migration across the North Sea. The new type of lighting has already been installed as a pilot project on one of NAM’s platforms - L15 in the Dutch part of the North Sea - with very promising results so far.

Every year some 60 million birds migrate across the North Sea. Most make the trip across without any problems. But under a certain combination of weather conditions many migratory birds are attracted and disoriented by traditional lighting on oil and gas platforms. They fly around aimlessly or alight on the platforms and spend a long time there, often becoming too weak to reach the coast. The risk of the birds encountering such specific weather conditions en route is about 10%.

NAM spent many years studying this problem and involved Philips. The studies showed that the key to solving the problem lies mainly in the colour of the lighting currently being used on the offshore platforms. Birds are distracted predominantly by the red part of the spectrum, and much less by blue or green. Blue lighting would however mean less safe conditions for the people working on the platforms, partly because that kind of light impairs the sharpness of one’s sight. Fire extinguishers are also less clearly visible in lighting without the red part of the spectrum. NAM and Philips got round the table with this information and jointly set about developing a new type of light that would not distract birds whilst at the same time and will at the same time not impair safe working conditions.

Platform L15, just off the island of Vlieland along the Dutch coast, is the first platform in the world to be equipped with the new type of lighting developed by Philips. Almost all the floodlights – no fewer than 380 lamps - have been replaced by a mixture of new special TL and HID lamps (36W TLD and 400W HPI lamps). During the present trial period the number of distracted birds is being counted whilst at the same time the welfare of the people working on the platform is also being studied. The trial is being carried out entirely in accordance with the regulations for safe, healthy working conditions. The platform workers are enthusiastic about the project and far fewer disoriented birds have been observed. The first scientific results will become available after the main bird migration season this autumn.

NAM and Philips are delighted about their joint project. “Philips is committed to improving the quality of life and sustainability is part of our heritage. This is a fantastic example of how different industrial organisations can jointly solve an environmental problem,” says Philips’ Marketing Manager Kay Rauwerdink. “The NAM carries out a lot of research into the impact of its activities on the environment with as aim to minimize these. I have high expectations for the new lamps,” adds Joop Marquenie, an environmental specialist working for NAM.

Philips and NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij) have developed a new type of lighting that will help birds to safely migrate across the North Sea.  The new type of lighting radiates only a limited part of the colour spectrum. The result of the development is a unique light colour for the offshore platforms that will be less distracting for birds during their migration.