SOLUTION: NO MORE WIND-RADAR CONFLICT

Like all good new ideas, wind energy has aggressive, vociferous detractors. Delivering energy in big quantities is inevitably challenging. No big energy source is without its critics.

Wind’s detractors have a litany of objections, mostly issues associated with siting the turbine installations. The wind energy industry has been admirably proactive in dealing with the objections. Interference with radar has until now been such an objection.

In the UK, wind's now-resolved interference with military radar was considered a matter of national security. In the U.S., it has so far been primarily a problem with civilian airport radar though the Defense Department has been careful about the siting of wind installations near radar facilities.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) had stopped at least four major offshore wind projects with the complaint that the turbines would create holes in radar coverage around the island and throw radar “shadows” on areas covered.

Rather than recoil into a defensive posture and create entrenched antipathies, the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) worked with the MoD and has now identified a radar technology upgrade to eliminate the problem. They have also reached a compromise on financing the upgrades in MoD systems.

Problem solved. The UK can now proceed with a lucrative development of its enormous offshore assets, a resource some have described as a “Saudi Arabia of offshore wind.”

The UK also has great onshore wind assets which can now likewise be developed.

Key to success: Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government places a high value on the development of wind energy in the UK. Reports are that Prime Minister Brown personally took part in the negotiations between the MoD and the BWEA.

May the previous Prime Minister be as successful in his present search for solutions.

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Wind farm firms and MoD agree on radar costs deal
Danny Fortson, 6 June 2008 (UK Independent)
and
Nato investigates defence threat from wind farms
Magnus Linklater and Dominic Kennedy, February 5, 2008 (UK Times)

WHO
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, UK; Des Browne, Defence minister, UK; John Hutton, Business Secretary, UK; Adam Bruce, chairman, British Wind Energy Association (BWEA)

WHAT
The MoD and the BWEA have agreed to a technology upgrade that resolves the problem of wind turbine interference with military radar. The agreement includes a joint funding plan for the technology upgrades in the radar system necessary to eliminate the interference.

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WHEN
- Agreement to be officially announced “imminently.”
- The problem was discovered in 2004 due to radar interference from an installation in Wales.

WHERE
- The major delay due to radar interference of offshore development has been on Britain’s northeast coast near the Scottish border.
- Other NATO countries are studying the problem.
- Most recently, the MoD delayed the building of a wind installation at Fallago Rig in the Lammermuir Hills in Scotland.

WHY
- Technology upgrades to the UK MoD radar system will eliminate the problem of turbines creating holes in radar coverage.
- The agreement provides for joint funding from the MoD and wind developers of the technology upgrades.
- Britain’s Crown Estate, which manages the UK offshore regions legally owned by the Queen on behalf of the government and the British people, has been moving ahead with plans for development of 11 new wind installations. (See QUEEN BUYS GIGANTIC WIND and WORLD’S BIGGEST OFFSHORE WIND TO UK)

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QUOTES
- Chris Breedon, Squadron Leader, RAF: “As a result of MoD trials proving that wind turbines adversely influence the performance of military and civilian radar systems operating within radar line of sight, Nato has become concerned about the rapid increase in the number of wind turbine farm projects under planning or in development in a number of Nato countries…”
- UK Independent: “It is understood that the sides reached the agreement after Gordon Brown stepped in. His administration has made green energy a centrepiece issue.”