Empirical Evaluation of the Impact of Wind Turbines on DVB-T Reception Quality

Abstract

This paper describes the results of two extensive measurement campaigns for evaluating the potential impact of scattered signals from wind turbines on terrestrial DTV reception quality in the UHF band. A detailed description of the different propagation channels encountered is provided. Furthermore, empirical threshold carrier-to-noise requirements for Quasi Error Free reception in the DVB-T system in the area of influence of a wind farm are presented, and the situations where a significant degradation can be found are identified and characterized.

Empirical Doppler Characterization of Signals Scattered by Wind Turbines in the UHF Band under Near Field Condition

“…The following analysis is based on UHF signals scattered by a wind farm which were recorded and postprocessed in order to detect the contributions of each individual wind turbine. Detailed descriptions of the field trials carried out to collect these signals and the methodology to obtain the scattering signals of each wind turbine from the recorded data can be found in previous references from the authors [1][2][3][4].…”

“…Taking into account the wind turbine dimensions (a mast of 55 m height and rotor of 52 m diameter), the scattering signals clearly correspond to near field condition. Although the spectral characteristics of the scattered signals will differ from those of the signals scattered under near field condition [6], it is precisely under near field condition that more severe degradations can occur for the telecommunication services provided in the UHF band [1], so these situations are of particular interest.…”

“…Signal variability caused by blade rotation is a critical issue when we are dealing with potential degradations on communications services due to wind farms. For example, in the case of the UHF band, the potential increment on the minimum requirements for quasi-error-free reception of the DVB-T service is directly related to the channel time variability [1].…”

An assessment of wind farms' electromagnetic impact for the aerodrome

“…The wind turbine, as a particular obstacle with a large geometry size, may interfere with electronic devices which employ the propagation of the electromagnetic wave. These devices include communication, navigation and surveillance devices in aviation such as primary surveillance radar (PSR), secondary surveillance radar (SSR) [2][3][4][5][6], VOR (VHF omnidirectional radio range) [7][8][9] and ILS (instrument landing system) [3], weather observation devices such as weather radar [10][11][12][13][14] and terrestrial television devices [15], etc. American researchers have validated the wind farms' obvious impacts on air traffic control (ATC) radars with fight experiments [16].…”

Wind turbine clutter signature for maritime UHF radar

“…The characteristics of wind turbine-scattering signals in communication system, [5] weather radar, [6][7][8] air traffic control radar, [9,10] HF surface wave radar, [11] wind profiler radar [12] and television service [13] have been observed through in-field experiments. More rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the scattering signals is performed through numerical simulation [7,[14][15][16][17] and laboratory measurement using scaled wind turbine models.…”