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Cambridge firm answers Government problem

Written by Lautaro Vargas

Wednesday, 05 March 2008

Winds of change: Cambridge technology holds the key to wind farm developments Cambridge Consultants is offering a new and low-cost technical solution to the conflict of interest facing the Government, surrounding its deployment of wind farms to meet renewable energy targets in the vicinity of sensitive UK MoD radar installations, which ensure the country’s ongoing security.  The solution involves adding advanced radar sensors to off-shore turbines to eliminate blind spots. Off-shore wind farms (or turbine arrays) interfere with both military and civil radar systems and this interference is currently being investigated by the Defence Secretary, the Secretary of State and the Transport Secretary.  Current solutions include major reviews of radar technology and relocation of radar installations. All of these are extremely costly, and several proposed UK wind farms have already been cancelled as a result of MoD objections. Dr Gordon Oswald, technology director at Cambridge Consultants explains: “The issue particularly affects large off-shore wind turbine arrays, whose echoes can create a radar blind spot. Echoes from the wind farm can yield false alarms, and it is harder to identify flying objects within the shadowed zone.” The proposed solution, based on Cambridge Consultants’ own holographic radar technology, has been developed and deployed across a range of applications including ice penetration, automotive and through-wall surveillance equipment.   Fill-in radar sensors will be sited at the wind farms themselves to cover the shadowed zone. They will be capable of eliminating the gaps and erroneous signals in air-traffic-control and other surveillance radar coverage caused by wind turbine blades. “There are many critical and far-reaching issues wrapped up in this problem including national security, international passenger safety and the long-term plan for the nation’s energy generation,” said Dr Oswald. He concluded: “Application of this technical solution will allow more of the UK’s renewable energy sites to be considered for wind farms. Our approach would be extremely cost-effective, especially in view of the cost of losing available wind energy, or even the public enquiries which stem from the process of developing new wind turbine sites.”

 

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