Green power safeguards birds on their northward migration

Every May marks the peak season for migratory birds traveling north. Rare species such as the Dalmatian pelican, black stork and black-faced spoonbill stop at Yuhuan Xuanmen Bay National Wetland Park in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province — one of Zhejiang's first officially designated birdwatching destinations — to rest and refuel during their long journey.

For Chen Yanxue, a wetland bird monitor, this is the busiest time of year. Her daily work includes tracking bird species and population numbers, as well as conducting wildlife disease surveillance during the large-scale migration season.

As an important stop along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, Xuanmen Bay National Wetland Park attracts tens of thousands of migratory birds every year from late October to April. To support observation and research, the park has installed 102 monitoring cameras across 34 bird habitat locations.

"The monitoring equipment has made bird observation much more efficient, but the remote locations once made stable power supply a real challenge," Chen said.

That challenge has now been addressed through the State Grid's "Green Power Ark" public welfare initiative. The project introduced an integrated wind-solar-storage power system combining distributed renewable energy generation, energy storage and power conversion technologies. Replacing traditional power sources, the system now provides uninterrupted and sustainable green electricity for bird monitoring operations.

Inside the park's science education center, real-time footage from all 34 monitoring sites is displayed on a large screen, allowing researchers to observe migratory birds feeding and resting as far as 10 kilometers away and document every stage of their northward migration.

For years, the State Grid Corporation of China has incorporated biodiversity conservation into the full lifecycle of grid planning, construction and operation as part of its commitment to green development. Focusing on habitats of rare and endangered species, the company has built green power supply systems and zero-carbon observation stations in and around key ecological areas, providing reliable clean energy and digital tools for conservation research and fieldwork. These efforts have gradually formed a new digital and intelligent conservation model known as the "Green Power Ark."

Statistics show that since the integrated wind-solar-storage power system was put into operation at Xuanmen Bay National Wetland Park, it has generated more than 60,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, while bird monitoring equipment has operated continuously for nearly 8,000 hours without power interruption.

Powered by green energy, the wetland park has become an increasingly vibrant habitat filled with flocks of soaring birds. Since 2021, the number of bird species recorded in the park has risen from 203 to 315, while the number of nationally protected first-class bird species has increased from 8 to 12.