These nearly silent wind turbines have owl-inspired ‘feathers’

Noise from wind turbines limits where they can be built. But a design that mimics the shape of owl feathers can make wind farms quieter and help renewable energy grow faster.

On a recent winter day on a wind farm in Germany, workers scaled 544-foot-tall wind turbines and started adding fringe-like attachments to the massive blades. The design, inspired by the shape of owl feathers, aims to solve one of the wind industry’s biggest challenges: the noise that turbines make as the blades slice through the air.