Crowe signals alarm over windfarm impacts on Shannon Airport flight radars

Clare’s Fianna Fáil TD has signalled alarm over plans to install windfarms in the area around the radars at Shannon Airport.

Radar uses radio waves to detect the location of airplanes in the sky. The waves travel at the speed of light until they hit an airplane, then bounce back off the airplane and back towards earth. A computer uses these return waves to determine the precise location based on the strength and travel time of the radio waves. The location is then displayed on an air traffic controller’s screen.

“In  recent weeks, we have seen both AirNav and management at Shannon Airport lodge quite hefty planning objections against wind farms proposed in East and South Clare. These objections state that the construction of wind turbines close to the all-important radar infrastructure near Shannon Airport could compromise flight safety.

“As the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Aviation, I too have weighed in with similar submissions to the planning process. When Clare County Council previously zoned lands in East and South Clare for potential windfarms, I don’t think the safety risks relating to radar were properly understood or considered.

“Now that these risks have been laid bare, I think Clare County Council have an onus to urgently consider these zonings and I have written to the Chief Executive of the Council in this regard.

“If wind turbines are installed on hill tops, in proximity to Shannon Airport, there’s a very strong possibility that the radar system will be distorted by the rotating turbine blades.

“It is essential from a safety point of view that the location of an aircraft can be identified with pinpoint accuracy at all times.

“This is the case where aircraft are taking off or landing at Shannon Airport, but also for the thousand or so flights passing over Irish airspace every day on transatlantic routes.

“If a local authority becomes aware that an area is a flood risk, it would act on the situation and remove land zonings that would allow for development.

“Similarly, I think now that the concerns relating to radar, air traffic control and wind turbines have been laid bare, I would hope that Clare County Council would urgently review some of the wind turbine zonings in South and East Clare.”