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A wind farm turbine
Innovative technology developed by BAE Systems is helping to unlock large amounts of renewable energy by overcoming one of the biggest barriers to the deployment of wind farms.
At the moment over 50 percent of proposed UK wind farm developments – representing 4.7GW of renewable energy – are held up because of air traffic control and air defence concerns over the effect the turbines have on radar.
BAE Systems is working to unlock that energy and helping the UK to achieve its target of generating 15% of our energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.
Our solutions range from modifying radar electronics to careful positioning of wind farms and radars and recently won a commendation at the Renewable Energy Awards. The Renewable Energy Association described the work as an “exceptional and innovative contribution towards the UK meeting its 2020 targets”.
We are at the forefront of the world’s radar technology development and train both civil and military air traffic controllers. We began studying the effect wind farms have on radar in 2002 and have already unlocked 500MW of renewable energy development by allowing developers to achieve consent with new approaches to overcoming the problem where previously no solutions existed.
Our approach involves working with key stakeholders across the renewables industry including wind farm developers, the Civil Aviation Authority, Ministry of Defence, airports, the British Renewable Energy Association, Crown Estates and the British Wind Energy Association, many of whom have acknowledged our role in facilitating discussion and understanding across a range of interest groups.
We are also applying our engineering expertise to help build the wind farms of the future. With our naval joint venture BVT Surface Fleet we are part of a consortium working on Project Deepwater Turbine, which will develop new approaches for offshore turbines and determine the feasibility of a 5MW floating offshore wind farm.
The Project Deepwater Team will consider a number of design factors in order to lower the cost of energy generation to a competitive level. These include ways to reduce the weight and complexity of wind conversion technology, enable economic manufacturing of the unit, float the system rather than construct it on the seabed as is traditionally the case, and reduce installation and through life maintenance costs.
