New turbine design to take wind off the radar

‘Stealth turbines’ could cut planning objections over air traffic control   

The UK could add a further 5GW of wind power capacity if a new project succeeds in resolving one of the main objections to wind power: that turbines clutter up the radar.

The project, which is joint funded to the tune of over £5 million by the industry, the Government and the Crown Estate (owner of all Britain’s offshore sites), is looking at both sides of the issue. On the one hand, it is considering ways to make the turbines invisible, perhaps with a coating like that used by stealth bombers. And on the other, it aims to sharpen up the radar software so that it’s no longer fazed by them.

Significantly, it’s the National Air Traffic Services themselves who will be doing the research, alongside radar boffins Raytheon Canada.

One way forward – inevitably dubbed the ‘stealth turbine’ by its developers – offers an innovative redesign of turbine blades with new composite materials, combined with a spray-on coating for the towers. The result of a five-year collaboration between defence technology specialists QinetiQ and turbine manufacturers Vestas Wind Systems, this new design has a reduced ‘radar signature’ – to the point where air traffic control and defence systems can factor it out. Announcing the success of its trials in Norfolk, Mark Roberts of QinetiQ said that the technology “could be a genuine game-changer for the renewable energy industry”. – Roger East

14 January 2010

Roger East

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