Site Assessments for Aircraft Detection Systems at Wind Farms

Wind turbines can pose a hazard to low-flying aircraft. For aviation safety reasons, relevant aeronautical obstacles and wind farms must be lit at night. However, obstacle lighting at wind farms is often perceived as disturbing by residents and have frequently led to resentment among the local population in the past.

Some State require or allow the equipage with an aircraft detection system for obstacle lighting. These systems activate or deactivate the lighting depending on the presence of aircraft in the vicinity of a wind farm. Among other things, this is intended to increase public acceptance of wind energy and its expansion and reduce the impact on the environment.

airsight has been designated by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) as an authorized entity for verifying aircraft detection systems and can therefore both carry out the necessary type tests with the manufacturers as well as investigate the site-specific fulfillment of the requirements for the wind farm in question.

The verification of the site-specific compliance, or the site assessments respectively, include on the one hand flight operational aspects, on the other hand the local conditions and the system functions at the site are also taken into account. Among other things, the coverage of the effective area (e.g. possible shadowing due to topography), the connection to wind farm and communication networks, but also sufficient switching times of the lighting must be ensured.

For this purpose, airsight is in constant contact with the civil aviation authorities. If necessary, possible challenges and solutions are coordinated with the responsible authority at an early stage. This provides operators with an efficient process for approving such aircraft detection lighting systems.

In the past months, airsight has investigated numerous wind farms and prepared site assessments for the manufacturers Lanthan Safe Sky and Deutsche Windtechnik. The first aircraft detection systems were successfully put into operation, including wind farms in Schleswig-Holstein and Rhineland-Palatinate.

Are you a wind farm operator or project developer? Please contact us to discuss your requirements with our team of experts!