What are the real options for mitigating impacts of wind energy on military readiness?
The report, which was limited in focus due to resource and time constraints, cites three options as the only known procedures to ensure absolutely no impact to radars — moving the wind turbine, lowering the height, or re-locating the affected radar. However, this assumes that all impacts on radar performance, including those caused by weather, are unacceptable. There are a number of technical mitigation options available today, including software upgrades to existing radar, processing filters related to signature identification, replacing aging radar, and potentially more. The Department of Energy is currently working with radar system experts across the country and overseas to catalogue known mitigation experiences, most promising options that exist, and those that are worth of developing in the future.
