The FAA and other U.S. government agencies have completed the third and final operational field test in a two-year, $8 million program to study the physical and electromagnetic interference between radar systems and wind turbine farms, and to identify mitigation techniques to address this issue.
Data from the third Interagency Field Test and Evaluation of Wind Turbine-Radar (IFT&E), designed to assess near-term mitigation and to help develop long-term mitigation techniques, is being analyzed by Sandia National Laboratories and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. The test took place in April.
Interference with radar has been a safety concern for both the FAA and the military, as well as a key roadblock to developers of new wind turbine farms, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Energy needs are accelerating plans for new wind farms, and elevating the priority for finding mitigation measures for radar interference. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), since 2000 wind power-generation capacity in the U.S. has increased from 5 gigawatts to 60, and could increase to as much as 305 gigawatts by 2030, supplying about 20% of U.S. electricity needs.
