'Stealth' wind turbine deployed

A wind turbine blade that absorbs radar signals has been demonstrated at a wind farm in eastern England.

Wind turbines confuse aviation radar signals, making aircraft in wind farms’ vicinities difficult to track.

Defence firm Qinetiq and turbine manufacturing firm Vestas are developing “stealth turbines”, with radar-absorbing materials and coatings.

The five-year effort may help many wind farm projects that are on hold because of so-called “radar clutter” concerns.

“The part of the turbine that gives you the greatest [radar clutter] problem is the blades, because they’re rotating,” said Mark Roberts, strategic business director for energy and environment at Qinetiq.

“We’ve got a coating for the fixed structure – the tower. We’re hesitating from calling it paint, because it’s actually quite thick.

“For the blades it will be material incorporated into the composite manufacture of the blade itself. In effect the whole of the turbine is made ’stealthy’ but there’s two solutions in there,” he told BBC News.

BBC