Options to mitigate utility-scale wind turbine impacts on defence capability, air supremacy, and missile detection

Abstract

There is increasing interest in, and concern over, the impact that the growing number of utility-scale wind farms are having on air supremacy and early warning missile detection in relation to radar clutter and shadow, seismic noise, and flight obstructions.This work identifies US defence industry concerns in relation to wind developments and conducts US industry interviews with representatives from the field of radar, the wind development industry, and government defence agencies. The results of the interviews provide detailed insights defining radar and military concerns raised around wind turbines and reveal that the US Department of Defense (DOD) have invested US $3 million to date on developing a suite of solutions to these concerns. This research discusses selected solutions available for the US DOD approval and alternative options that may be introduced to mitigate the impact of utility-scale wind turbines on defence and security. Implementing solutions will require greater cooperation between government agencies and wind developers, dedicated funding, a common research plan, and streamlined processes.

GIS-Based Assessment of Solar Energy Harvesting Sites and Electricity Generation Potential in Zambia

“…In addition, unified planning and poor site selection for intermitted renewable energy source based power plant have resulted in mismatch between the grid capacity and PV power plant output during peak time in some parts of the world (Siheng et al 2016;Ming 2015). On the other hand, arbitrary site selection and neglecting the transmission line available reserve margin in the procedure have resulted in some PV power plant exceeding the local transmission line reserve margin and grid unable to transmit the energy to the load centers during peak hours (Chinairn 2013;Aly Sanoh 2014;Quansah 2016). Therefore, preliminary estimation and mapping of potential sites, available areas, and technical energy yield potential for intermitted renewable energy source based power plant deployment while considering social acceptability and supporting natural environmental sustainability can be helpful to overcome these problems (Siheng et al 2016).…”

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].…”