Biome Renewables bolted owl-feather fringes onto turbine blades to cut low-frequency noise

Fast Company reported in January 2025 that workers on a German wind farm climbed 544-foot turbines to add fringe-like attachments to the blades. The attachment, called FeatherEdge, was designed by startup Biome Renewables to cut turbine noise, which founder and CEO Ryan Church called the biggest limiting factor for turbine placement.

Church began the design after watching a nature documentary in which a barn owl flew over microphones so quietly that the filmmakers wondered if the recording equipment was on. Standard blades already carry a serrated edge to break up airflow; Biome's flexible fringe follows the shape of fringe on the trailing edge of some owl feathers and is customized for each specific turbine, applied at key locations to control how the air mixes.

Turbine noise limits farm size, distance to cities and operating schedules.

Standard serrations are a known fix but leave room for more.

Biome targets the low-frequency range, which is hardest to quiet and is what reaches people's houses.

The attachments retrofit onto blades, so existing turbines can use them.

When the main constraint is a side effect, copy a natural design that already solved it and add it to the existing hardware.

Standard serrations cut noise by 1.5 to 2 decibels; in early tests FeatherEdge reduced noise by an additional 3.4 decibels, according to the article. The German installation on massive turbines may show greater reductions once results are in, and no results from it were reported yet.