Radar resists wind farm interference
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Together with its partner Lockheed Martin, Serco has reached an agreement with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to introduce new radar technology into the UK Air Defence System that is resistant to the interference generated from wind farms, removing a significant planning obstacle to the roll out of future offshore wind power.
Focusing on the proposed development in the Greater Wash area off the coast of East Anglia, a Lockheed Martin TPS-77 radar will be installed at Remote Radar Head (RRH) Trimingham to coincide with the opening of Scira’s offshore wind farm at Sheringham Shoal.
The radar will mitigate the impact of the wind farm on air defence radar coverage right across the Greater Wash.
The TPS-77 radar itself is an L-band, phased array radar. The radar’s planar array antenna rotates to provide 360° azimuth coverage. As the antenna rotates, the radar transmits pencil beams that are electronically phase scanned to provide complete elevation coverage.
Instead of a single transmitter, the TPS-77 uses 34 distributed solid-state transmitters and receivers that are located on the antenna array - directly coupled to their antenna elements. This architecture eliminates high-power rotary joints and central transmitters - two common single points of failure in most long-range radars. Only low-level IF signals pass across slip rings to off-array signal and data processing equipment.
The Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, located between 17km and 23km off the coast of North Norfolk, will comprise 88 wind turbines capable of generating 317MW of capacity.
Readers' comments (3)
Harold M. George | 12 Apr 2010 3:46 pm
What about other sites, particularly those around the electricity generating centre for England, namely Selby?
There are numerous planning applications for wind-farms in the Selby Area, but Linton-on-Ouse have objected on the grounds of interference with MOD radar. Although Newlands are having a wind farm built in or near to their village. Newlands is next to Drax power station.
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jim van damme | 12 Apr 2010 5:25 pm
Seems to me that a mod to the signal processing would filter out the windmills, or at least provide a clutter map. But, it's a good excuse to buy a new radar, which you ought to do now and then anyways.
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Steven Lorimer | 12 Apr 2010 9:21 pm
This is fine for a 3D radar where the 'interference' is only in the lower beam(s). What about conventional 2D ATC radars trying to detect general aviation over wind farm areas? There should be limits on the closeness between generators so that the radar has a chance using very high resolution waveforms.
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