Digital Battlespace
UK tests wind farm resistant radar
The UK MoD has tested a newly-installed radar designed to counter interference associated with wind farms, it has been revealed.
In a statement on 12 January, the UK MoD said that on its behalf an industry/government team installed the Lockheed Martin TPS-77 Air Defence Radar near Cromer, Norfolk.
The team includes Serco, which installed the radar itself; Lockheed Martin; the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S); and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
‘We must rapidly increase the levels of home-grown clean energy produced in the UK. Wind farms and other forms of renewable energy will help boost our energy security, and ultimately our national security. I am pleased that an outcome has been reached that is beneficial to our national security, energy security and decarbonisation goals,’ said Energy Minister Charles Hendry in the statement.
The radar allows for the potential releasing of 3.3GW of renewable energy- enough to power some two million homes- and is significant in that until now the MoD has objected to wind farms located near air defence radars due to the interference caused by the turbine blades.
Wind turbines pose a challenge to most air surveillance radar because they cause clutter that the radar is not designed to process. This is caused by turbine blade tips that spin at high speeds. As the rotor tips travel through the air, they hit microwaves radiated from a radar antenna and reflect that energy back to the antenna, which can lead to radar software interpreting the spinning blade tips as a moving airborne object, such as aircraft.
As a result of this turnaround, the MoD has removed planning objections to five further offshore wind farms in the Greater Wash.
A follow-on deal has also been siged, which has seen the MoD order two more of the wind-farm-friendly radars, funded by developers, which will be installed in Northumberland and Yorkshire, UK.
These will provide a further 750 MW of renewable energy, and ‘will promote further development of wind farms and help the Government reduce carbon emissions’, the MoD said in the statement.
‘The MOD was instrumental in convincing the energy companies to collaborate and jointly fund the cost of the radar, meeting operational requirements and ultimately enabling the generation of more renewable energy. This is good news for all parties to this arrangement,’ Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans Andrew Robathan added.
Email this to a friend.
