HSE
to the sustainable principles on which wind farms are designed to start with. No wonder, then, that wind industry insiders are hunting for alternatives to the ceaseless flash of traditional turbine lights. Rather than leaving lamps to blink all night, some places are instead experimenting with so-called ‘aircraft detection lighting systems’ (ADLS) models, linking lights with aircraft radar systems so only activate when a pilot gets close. It goes without saying that this approach has the potential to leave nearby residents much happier – and save the local wildlife from some unwelcome lights. Not that this transformation is easy, requiring intense collaboration between manufacturers and government officials, ADLS can only succeed with careful management and communication. Yet, get it right and this approach could make wind energy both more sustainable and more popular, as one German company is showing.
Flash mobs Typically soaring some 450ft into the sky, wind turbines can be a deadly hazard for low-flying aircraft. In 2014, to give just one example, a fixed- wing plane hit a turbine in rural South Dakota, killing four. In the investigation that followed, officials found that one of the disaster’s causes – apart from foggy weather and human error – may have been an “inoperative obstruction light” – which “prevented the pilot from visually identifying the wind turbine”. It should come as no surprise that lighting turbines properly has been a fundamental tenet of the industry for years. “A legal obligation that for operation, wind turbines above a certain height must be equipped with warning lights on the turbine and, if necessary, on the tower, has existed for a very long time,” explains Jasper Salzwedel, senior sales manager at Deutsche Windtechnik, a major producer of ADLS. That’s just as true in Salzwedel’s native Germany – which mandates lights for turbines taller than 150m (492ft) – as it is in Marshall County. In the US, meanwhile, the rules are controlled by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), which even details exactly what kind of lights it prefers (slower flashes promote “cleaner, crisper presentation”) and how multiple lights across a single farm should interact (synchronised flashes are best). Yet, if adequate lighting is accepted across the wind sector, the backlash in Marshall County is far from unique either. In Germany, for instance, residents of North Frisia have long complained about the disruption caused by turbine lights – unsurprising, given that over 1,000 machines in their area have their own artificial star. A similar story could be told elsewhere, from Ontario in Canada to the French couple that won €110,000 in compensation after being subjected to ‘turbine syndrome’ from flashing lights. Nor are these
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objections necessarily unreasonable. Often visible for miles, especially in flat regions like Kansas, wind farm lamps can undoubtedly be an eyesore. Beyond the human cost, scientists have warned that lights can harm our animal cousins too. According to a 2018 study by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of the creatures are lured to a blade- assisted death by turbine lights each year. This, of course, is shadowed by more practical considerations. A constantly flashing light obviously costs money to run, while an unstinting night-time schedule means maintenance needs become more frequent too. To be fair, the industry has been conscious of these problems for a while. As Salzwedel says, the principle of airspace monitoring, which would ensure turbine bulbs only flash when needed, has been around for a “long time”. In practice, however, linking aircraft radar systems to turbine sensors has historically proved both expensive and technically complex. But as the Deutsche Windtechnik representative continues, that difficulty was overcome by instead tapping into the transponder transmissions mandatory across all aircraft. This, says Salzwedel, allows an ADLS system to be “implemented much more cost-effectively”.
You don’t have to put on the red light If better technology is one pillar of the ADLS revolution, the law is another. In 2020, Germany became the first European country to make ADLS mandatory for a wide range of turbines in the Baltic and North Seas. After a number of revisions, wind farm operators now have until the end of 2022 to retrofit all pre-2006 turbines with hazard lights with the new system. Strikingly, Salzwedel explicitly links the move to broad unhappiness with the status quo – especially when it comes to light pollution. “Officially,” he explains, “the main reason is to increase acceptance of wind turbines in the population and promote the expansion of renewable energies.”
“A legal obligation that for operation, wind turbines above a certain height must be equipped with warning lights on the turbine and, if necessary, on the tower, has existed for a very long time”
Whatever the reasoning, the move towards ADLS is already being felt across the Federal Republic. Typical is the work at the Civic Wind Farm of Neungörs, a rural municipality north of Hamburg. At exactly 6:30pm on February 26 2021, the permanently blinking lights that had become a fixture of the area were switched off forever. Praising the ADLS that replaced them, the farm’s general manager
80k University of Essex
Bats are killed by wind turbines each year in the UK alone.
Opposite: Flashing turbine lights have drawn criticism around the world from locals and wildlife researchers alike.
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