[CPEO-MEF] ENERGY: LA Times editorial on wind and radar

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Wind farms and the radar problem
Wind farms interfere with commercial and military radar systems. That's 
stalling some projects, but it doesn't have to.


Editorial
Los Angeles Times
September 7, 2010


Increasing the amount of electricity we get from renewable sources such 
as the sun and wind is a national priority and a state mandate. Among 
the many obstacles to getting that done - opposition to new transmission 
lines, worries that solar plants will harm endangered species, conflicts 
over land use - one has until recently remained largely off the public 
radar screen. But the radar screen is precisely the problem: Wind farms 
interfere with commercial and military radar systems.

In 2009, wind projects that would have produced a combined 9,000 
megawatts of power were shelved or stalled after the Department of 
Defense or the Federal Aviation Administration raised concerns about 
radar, according to the New York Times. That's nearly as much as the 
power generated by wind farms that were actually built last year. The 
Mojave Desert is a particular trouble spot because of the many military 
air facilities in the region, and several proposed projects there have 
been withdrawn after hitting turbulence from the military.

...

For the entire editorial, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-radar-20100907,0,1881109.story

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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