Wind farm blow to radar systems

The rotating blades can be a source of interference

The Ministry of Defence has pledged to speed up its responses to applications for wind farms after a study revealed the turbines can be picked up by radar as aircraft targets.

Junior Defence Minister Lewis Moonie said trials conducted by the Royal Air Force in 1994 and 1997 found that wind farms had a "detrimental effect" on civilian and military radar performance.

Labour MP Gareth Thomas said several wind farm developers, aware of the "potential impact" on military radar, had "anxieties" about the MoD's slowness in deciding whether to lodge an objection to each plan.

MoD assisted study due to be completed shortly

He asked the minister: "Given the wind farm industry's considerable potential to create new jobs and reduce greenhouse gas admissions, will you consider carefully further action to speed up the Ministry's consideration of such matters?"

Dr Moonie agreed, stressing that each proposal was given a "full appraisal" by at least seven separate technical advisers, each with their own specialism.

The criteria used was "on the ability to train our pilots safely and operational capability", he said.

"We are members of a steering group on wind energy which is considering ways to speed up the process."

Turbine design

Dr Moonie said the RAF trials found that the rotating blades of turbines "can be a source of interference" to radar performance.

"The turbines can appear as genuine aircraft targets that could either mask aircraft responses or desensitise the radar within the sector containing the wind farm, and they can also cause an unquantifiable general effect on radar," he said.

The MoD is currently involved in a Department of Trade and Industry-sponsored study to try to find ways to reduce the adverse impacts on radar, including adaptations to turbine design, he said.

Of the 952 proposals from wind farm developers across the UK in 2002, the MoD has so far objected to 248.