RenewableUK has announced a deal between the wind energy industry and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) which will see a joint government and industry-funded radar system installed to monitor the Greater Wash.
This new system will enable the MoD to lift its current objections to five offshore wind farms which represent GBP7 billion of investment and stand to deliver more than 3,000MW of wind energy. The agreement to acquire a Lockheed Martin radar follows tests conducted in Denmark in 2008, and a subsequent extensive modelling exercise, which demonstrated that this system, already installed in over 150 locations worldwide, is able to consistently filter the movement of offshore turbines with other air and seaborne activity. The full costs for the acquisition of the radar system have not been disclosed, though these have been jointly met by Government and wind energy companies seeking to construct the offshore wind farms in the Greater Wash.