In France will be built wind turbines with “inconspicuous” blades
Bashny.Net
Recently, the French energy company EDF Energies Nouvelles announced plans to build additional wind turbines equipped with stealth technology on the territory of the already operating wind park in Perpignan. This technology was developed to reduce interference created by wind turbines in aircraft radar systems.
One of the most common reasons for blocking wind farm projects in France is the detection of spinning blades by aircraft radars, when operators cannot accurately distinguish between the rotors of low-flying aircraft and modern wind turbines. To solve this problem, the Danish company Vestas, the largest manufacturer in the wind energy market, decided to develop wind turbines that would be invisible to radar.
Airliner designers currently use two types of technology to hide aircraft from radar. The first technology is to use a special coating on the outer surface of the fuselage that converts radar signals into heat not detected by radar stations. The second approach involves constructing an airliner body so that radar signals are reflected far away from radar stations. Vestas engineers decided to use the first technology, developing a special coating for the blades, which masks them from radar systems.
The new radar evasion blades have already been tested at a wind farm in Auvergne, France. As the test results showed, the new technology from Vestas works according to the declared characteristics, which is the basis for its deployment on a larger scale. The Auvergne wind farm, called Ensemble Eolien Catalan and with a capacity of 96 MW, has become not only one of the largest wind projects in France, but also the very first wind farm with minimal radar interference.
Following the successful implementation of the next project in Perpignan, Vestas intends to look for new customers, including in the US and the UK.