Defense, Energy Departments Clash Over Wind PowerSeptember 01, 2010

 

The U.S. Department of Defense has made great strides in going green—from experimenting with algae bio-fuel to power jet planes to solar panels on military bases to save energy.

But there is one form of renewable energy — wind turbines — that it sees as a growing menace. And with the federal government's push to promote renewable energy in the consumer, commercial and government sectors, the Department of Defense (DoD) is at odds with the Department of Energy and private industries bent on harnessing energy through wind turbines.

The big problem: The DoD says that revolving wind turbines are indistinguishable from airplanes on most radar systems, according to an article in The New York Times. The fast moving turbines can even cause blackout zones that can make planes disappear altogether from radar. The article also notes that a group of wind turbines can look like storm activity on weather radar, confusing air traffic controllers trying to give accurate information to pilots.

"I call it the train wreck of the 2000s," Gary Seifert, who has been studying the radar-wind energy clash at the Idaho National Laboratory, an Energy Department research facility, told The New York Times. "The train wreck is the competing resources for two national needs: energy security and national security."

Reducing or eliminating "turbine clutter" is possible but complicated. Most radar systems in the United States were installed in the 1950s and cannot even match the processing capabilities of a decent modern laptop. The article notes that while there are technology workarounds to help filter out the imprint of the turbines, they can cause even bigger problems.

On radar, "a wind turbine can look like a 747 on final approach," Peter Drake, technical director at Raytheon, a major provider of radar systems told the Times. "We don’t want to have the software eliminate a real 747."

The Energy Department maintains that the problem can be alleviated.

"We are confident that investments in mitigation measures, including new coatings or materials for wind turbines, alternative configurations for wind farms, gap-filler radar or software patches, and investments over time in upgrades to modernize radar systems, will enable the continued deployment of wind power across the country," Jen Stutsman, a spokeswoman for the agency, told the Times.

But in the meantime, the DoD and the Federal Aviation Administration have protested several wind turbine construction projects across the country, bringing them to a halt.