Some recent news articles about wind farms only turning on flashing warning lights when aircraft are near during the nighttime. This seems to be becoming law to reduce light pollution and is getting implemented. One imagines the same regulation would eventually be applied to AWES. But if that is so, you could imagine using that technology to also land the system when aircraft are near, probably easing airspace regulation.
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From the second link:
The detection system was supplied by Terma.
And the same or similar radar detection system could also be applied to AWES.
Depending on this possibility, certain AWES that can quickly recovery the kites could be advantaged: I think about those using pumping (yo-yo, reeling) mode.
On the contrary, if the AWES remain fixed even when planes pass by, it may be necessary to illuminate the upper part of the tethers in a similar way as lighting the tops of wind turbine masts as seen on the video.
Also phosphorescent tethers could perhaps help for more safety by night, if the brightness is just enough for spotting, and not to illuminate the surroundings.
103 new 4.3MW turbines have been erected near here recently
Only 1 in 8 has a light on it
An AWES farm might only need 1 light… ?
Do all planes that fly at night have transponders? If not how is this going to work?
I think they dont necessarily do. But the system described earlier was radar based, so it should work nevertheless
@PierreB you often have numerous broadly connected links enriching the quality of your posts.
I’d love to know how you manage your AWES investigation and research
E.g. do you use a notation and categorisation and tagging database?
Or are you just super curious and very into the topic?