French energy company EDF Energies Nouvelles is working on stealth wind turbines that will be able to reduce interference with radar systems.
The turbines are being built with technology inspired by stealth warplanes, and are planned to be constructed next spring in the "Ensemble Eolien Catalan" wind farm located near Perpignan, according to Reuters. EDF EN plans to have the turbines operating throughout 2015.
A spokeswoman for the company said the turbines will be responsible for producing 96 megawatts of capacity for Ensemble Eolien Catalan, which will make the wind farm the biggest in France.
Radar interference, which can hide signals of other objects, has played a role by delaying or blocking dozens of wind farm projects, Reuters reported. Denmark's Vestas, the largest land-based wind turbine maker in the world, will produce the wind towers' blades, which the company said will feature a smaller radar signature.
"We have used surface treatment technologies, including those arrived from military applications," said Nicolas Wolff, head of Vestas' French unit.
Wind projects in France have also run into problems with the military, as almost 6,000 MW of wind farm projects in France have been blocked to avoid interfering with military and weather radars.
"There is a conflict here; there are two kinds of users for the same space. For us, it is a real problem," said Sonia Lioret, director of the French Windfarm Federation.
The Lockheed Martin F-117 Nighthawk and other jets are able to get past radar with the help of a coating used to absorb radar, Reuters reported. Such coating is used with shapes and angled surfaces to hide the jet's "radar cross section," which measures how well radar can detect the jet.
EDF EN has so far tested the radar-shielding technology on two wind turbines in a wind park in Auvergne, located in central France. Wolff said that one or two more years of research is needed for Vestas to figure out its chances of selling the technology to other countries, with potential customers including the U.S. and the U.K.
