Red Eléctrica de España has earmarked over two million euros to mark more than 500 kilometres of high-voltage electricity lines with bird-flight diverters. The investment associated to this action is part of the 2017-2023 Line Marking Plan initiated by the Company last June and whose objective is to reduce, through the installation of these devices, the potential risk of birds colliding with electricity lines.
The plan has been designed based on the results obtained from Red Eléctrica’s ‘Birds and Power Lines’ project. A project whose outcome was the mapping of bird flight paths and that was awarded the 2014 European Business Awards for the Environment in the special category 'Business and Biodiversity'. The project, which was completed in 2016, has allowed the identification of those sections of HV overhead electricity lines which represent the greatest potential impact on birdlife. This plan and previous actions have led to the marking of more than 3,000 kilometres of electricity transmission lines to date.
Blade-type and spiral-type bird-flight diverters are devices that improve the visibility and detection of grounding cables of electricity lines by birds, by increasing their diameter. These kinds of measures respond to Red Eléctrica's commitment to protecting biodiversity, although the installation of these devices is only carried out after the competent environmental administration has been informed.
This plan is integrated into the Biodiversity Action Plan recently approved by the Company recently and that gives continuity to the one undertaken between 2015 and 2016 with the marking of several sections of lines with potential risk in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. The work for the installation of bird-flight diverter has already begun in sections located in Castilla y León, Catalonia and Extremadura, with works scheduled for the whole of Spain to be completed in 2023.
Red Eléctrica, aware of its key position in the energy sector and as a company committed to sustainability, has incorporated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into its business strategy and prioritises and focuses its efforts on achieving the goals regarding energy, innovation & infrastructure and climate change (goals 7, 9 and 13) as it pertains to the undertaking of its activity.
In addition, with actions such as this, Red Eléctrica showcases its contribution to other SDGs, in this case goal 15, for the sustainable management of forests, combating desertification, stopping and reversing land degradation and curbing the loss of biodiversity.
Red Eléctrica has recently been recognised by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as a world leader in the Electric Utilities sector. The Company has also been ranked as a global leader in sustainability in the Utilities supersector, a sector which encompasses the electricity, gas and water sectors, as a result of its policies focused, among other objectives, on caring for biodiversity
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