Solution for Radar and Wind Farms to Go Ahead

LONDON, October 21/PRNewswire/ --

    - Wind Industry Puts Forward GBP1.6m Towards Resolving Radar Issues

    - Solution Likely to Release 6 Gigawatts of Projects, Enough to Power 3.4

Million Homes

    BWEA welcomed today the signing of the contract between DECC, The Crown

Estate, NATS En Route and the wind industry's Aviation Investment Fund

Company to progress the development of the Raytheon solution.

    The Raytheon solution is a hardware and software fix to the detection of

wind turbines on radar systems, which will eliminate wind turbine

interference of en route radar displays. It is estimated that currently there

are 6 gigawatts of wind energy capacity held back due to objections from

civil and MoD aviation authorities. This is enough capacity to power 3.4

million homes.

    Simon Christian, Project Director at ScottishPower Renewables and Chair

of the Aviation Investment Fund Company said: "The industry is delighted to

have set up the AIFCL and that this major contract has been made between all

the parties. This is one of the most exciting developments for the potential

removal of aviation objections, and we are very pleased to have instigated

it."

    BWEA has also welcomed the role of The Crown Estate as a major sponsor to

accelerate and de-risk Round 3 wind farm developments.

    Colin Ormston, Development Director at Vattenfall said, "Vattenfall are

very pleased to celebrate this significant achievement. The signing of this

document demonstrates the commitment of the Government, the aviation industry

and the wind industry to investigate how new technologies may be used to

enable the wind industry to work more closely with the aviation community in

addressing climate change."

    While the Raytheon solution has the potential to fix the en route radar

problem, issues still remain with MoD radar, and the Aviation Investment Fund

Company has also recently committed to fund a MoD and IBM study for expanding

the UK Air Defence and Ground Environment Command and Control System (UCCS)

to accept air traffic control radar feeds as wind farm mitigation.

    Notes to Editors

    1. BWEA is the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine

renewables industries. Formed in 1978, and with 532 corporate members, BWEA

is the leading renewable energy trade association in the UK. Wind has been

the world's fastest growing renewable energy source for the last seven years,

and this trend is expected to continue with falling costs of wind energy and

the urgent international need to tackle CO2 emissions to prevent climate

change.

    2. Fourteen member companies of BWEA have joined forces investing in a

central industry fund - the Aviation Investment Fund Company - so that

resources can be directed towards addressing the radar issue. NATS En Route

have been appointed to manage the Research and Development with Raytheon

Canada, the suppliers of the radar system.

    3. The fourteen initial companies to have invested in the fund

are Banks Developments, E.ON Climate & Renewables, EDF Energy Renewables,

Ecotricity, Falck Renewables, Novera Energy Plc, RES UK & Ireland, RWE Npower

Renewables, ScottishPower Renewables, SSE Renewables, Vattenfall, West Coast

Energy, Wind Prospect and Your Energy. Since the establishment of the fund,

four further companies will be contributing; they are Community Windpower

Ltd, EnergieKontor, North British Windpower and RidgeWind.

Source: BWEA

For more information please contact: Charles Anglin, Director of Communications, +44(0)774-002-3641, c.anglin@bwea.com; Nick Medic, Head of Communications, +44(0)7792-462-719, n.medic@bwea.com; Mark Pursey, Communications Adviser, +44(0)759-551-1166, mark.pursey@btpadvisers.com