EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, April 21,2010
FFA puts hold on big Shepard Flats wind project
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one
canceled. Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
are assisting Caithness Energy in try ing to resolve the
issues and permit the project to continue.
“If the Defense Department allows this project to go
down the drain after years and years of development,
the (wind farm) investors are going to walk," Wyden
said. “We don’t see why they should be able to come in
at the last minute and put the kibosh on this program.”
Gelber claims that the Air Force and Navy were
notified of the project years ago and never raised any
concerns. He asserts that Caithness has invested four to
five years in obtaining proper permits from federal and
local authorities to enable construction of the 845 mega
watt capacity farm. Now, after signing a $1.4 billion
agreement with General Electric, workers are arriving
for construction on roads and turbine foundations, how
ever, Caithness cannot put them to work.
They
may be prevented from ever completing their venture.
The Air Force’s concern stems from two factors. Tur
bines can reflect radar and create blind spots that erase
airplanes from the radar screen. Additionally, the vary
ing speeds in turbines due to changes in w ind clutter the
radar screen.
According to the FAA notice, the proposed turbines
could “seriously impair the ability of the (Department
of Defense) to detect, monitor and safely conduct air
operations in this region.” The AA further states that
the Fossil radar station “already experiences significant
clutter and target tracking issues in this general area.”
The project involves 303 wind turbines and the power
sales will go to Southern California Edison.
When completed. Shepherds, located on approxi
mately 32,000 acres, will be the largest wind facility in
Oregon.
Fears of Radar Interference Threaten
Oregon Wind Farm, but Solutions Exist
Software and Hardware Upgrades Can Eliminate the
Problems
by Dave Levitan - Apr 19th, 2010 from www.solveclimate.com
Wind turbines can reach hundreds of feet into the air,
but the effects of their spinning blades can extend much
farther than that.
In a rehashing of a continuing concern, the Pentagon
and the Federal Aviation Administration are threatening
to block the construction of what would be the country’s
largest wind farm because of a potential for the turbines
to interfere with nearby radar systems’ ability to track
airplanes.
Caithness Energy is ready to start construction on
the Shepherds Flat wind farm along the Columbia River
Gorge in northeastern Oregon; it would have a capacity
of up 909 megawatts. In spite 6f the project having been
in development for several years, objections have been
raised only now regarding a radar system used by the
Air Force in Fossil, Ore., about 70 miles from the wind
farm site.
At the root of the problem is the radar signature
created by a spinning turbine blade. Radar systems are
designed to distinguish between things that move and
things that don’t — say, an airplane versus the moun
tain behind it — so when an airplane flies in the same
general vicinity as the many spinning blades on a wind
farm, the airplane might disappear in the “clutter” cre
ated by the turbines’ radar signature.
‘Because this is an older radar it doesn’t have a
modem computer system to help it filter these things
out,” said Gary Seifert, an expert on wind turbines and
radar at the Idaho National Laboratory.
“The older radars can only handle so much of that
clutter or noise before they start detuning their perfor
mance. So if you get too many wind turbines in an area
then that portion of the radar has a little less sensitiv
ity."
Multiple Mitigation Strategies
The conflict between wind turbines and radar is
not a new one. The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in 2006
arguing that the holds on >vind farms due to military
radar concerns were in effect halting the entire industry,
and speaking at a conference earlier this year Seifert
cited American Wind Energy Association data indicat
ing that more than 9,000 MW of wind power have been
held up, deferred or abandoned due to radar issues.
There is little debate that wind turbines can in fact
interfere with radar’s ability to see planes. The real
question, Seifert told SolveClimate, is whether small
gaps in a radar’s vision are really all that important.
“If the plane is flying along, and you see him for 50
miles, and he disappears for a couple of miles and then
is back on the screen again, did you lose your ability to
do your job if that area is out in the middle of the desert
and its not by anything that matters?”
He added that location is obviously quite important
— if the turbines in question are next to a military base,
or the border of the country, for example, “then the
equation is completely different than if you’re out in
the middle of Oregon. Those are questions that only the
military can answer.”
And even if the answers to those questions are
unequivocal and the military needs no gaps at all in its
radar systems, solutions to the problem are plentiful.
First, newer radar systems, such as the Lockheed
Martin TPS-77 recently purchased by the wind-friendly
British government, have the ability to see through the
turbine clutter.
‘‘It can look for airplanes right down to about 500 feet
of turbines without any interference from the turbines,”
Seifert said. He added, though, that price tags on the
order of $20 to $30 million make this an unlikely miti
gation option for the issues in Oregon.
Other, much cheaper fixes also are available though.
There are software upgrades using what are known as
clutter erasure algorithms that could help the older sys
tems see through the turbines, and the FAA also can use
the Service Life Extension Program to fund hardware
upgrades that would eliminate the problem. Also, short
range radar systems placed inside or directly adjacent
to the wind farm could work in tandem with the long
range system and fill in the gaps.
“The other thing to realize is that a cooperative air
plane, when it is flying through airspace, uses a tran
sponder that also interacts with the radar tracking
system of the FAA,” Seifert said. “When you have the
transponder turned on, the radar has no trouble over the
wind farms. It is only the airplanes that are ‘non-coop
erative,’ which means they don’t have a transponder,
those are the only ones that are hard to find over some
of these wind farms.
“Which gets back to the question: What is the mis
sion, what is the worry, what is the threat? Is this an
area we’re worried about or is this just another area
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Sheriff’s Report
The Morrow Coun
ty Sheriff’s Office reports
handling the follow ing
business:
-MCSO received
report of someone making
harassing phone calls to a
Boardman subject. The man
was warned to stop calling
or he would face telephone
harassment charges.
-MCSO arrested
Kelly Ray Fox, 36, for
Fajlure to Pay Fine/Provid-
ing False Information to a
Peace Officer while he was
in the Umatilla County Jail
on other charges.
-MCSO received
report of a slide-off on 1-84
with minor damages.
-MCSO, Boardman
Fire Department, Boardman
Ambulance received report
of a rollover motor vehicle
accident with the vehicle
blocking the slow lane on
1-84. The ambulance was
refused. A tow was dis
patched.
-MCSO received
report that Heppner EMS
where we’re watching airplanes fly?”
Elsewhere in the Gorge
The Shepherds Flat wind farm is the only one in
the windy Columbia River Gorge area that has been
asked to halt construction as of yet, but other develop
ers are worried that the radar problems will reach them,
as well. Jan Johnson, a spokesperson with Iberdrola
Renewables, said the company has three projects total
ing 400 MW in the eastern Columbia River Gorge area
in Oregon and Washington that are currently awaiting
final approval from the FAA.
Since getting initial findings of “no hazard” in rela
tion to radar systems, the company has made some
modifications to the wind farm plans, Johnson said, but
the changes should not be enough to spur any sort of
change in the FAA’s finding.
“There is no reason, we believe, to delay or reject
those facilities today for which no concerns were raised
in the recent past,” she said. “We are preparing to begin
construction, which we cannot do without that ap
proval.” The company does expect to be able to move
forward on construction soon.
Johnson also said that in the past when radar con
cerns have been raised in other areas of the country,
the company has received some help from members
of Congress who were hopeful that the wind projects
could bring jobs to the area. In the case of the Shep
herd’s Flat project by Caithness Energy, the politicians
are already chiming in.
Last week, Oregon’s two senators, Democrats Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley, placed holds on three defense
department nominees as a negotiating tactic for speed
ing the resolution of the radar concerns. Caithness has
said that any significant delay would scuttle the project
completely, as federal stimulus funds will only go to
the project if it is completed by the end of 2012.
Although the congressional input may help resolve this
particular radar-wind power conflict, it is unlikely that
this issue will go away any time soon.
“There are very few places in the US that will not
receive more and more scrutiny as time goes on,”
Seifert said. “We have an awful lot of long range radar
scattered around the US, and any radar that can see a
turbine has this potential conflict. It just happens that
some radars are very good at working with turbine clut
ter and other ones aren’t quite so good.” He said some
concerns have already been raised around wind farms
near the Great lakes, as well as in potential offshore
sites along the east coast.
“Every situation, every radar has different distance
issues, different performance issues,” Seifert said.
“Every risk or national security concern is going to be
different, so that forces a case by case assessment.” *
Sheriff’s Report
p°rted t0 Good shepherd
Hospital.
The Morrow Coun
ty Sheriff’s Office reports
handling the follow ing
business:
was transporting one to the
Tri-Cities.
-MCSO received
report o f a white terrier
running around in Irrigon.
The owner was contacted
and advised to keep the
dogs and her property or
she would be cited.
-MCSO received
report of a red Chevy Blazer
being driven erratically on
1-84, Boardman.
M CSO received
report from a Heppner man
that an unwanted male sub
ject was at his home and
wouldn’t leave. A MCSO
sergeant responded and
took the subject home
-Boardman Police
Department received re
port of a two-vehicle auto
accident with no injuries.
Insurance information was
exchanged.
-BPD made contact
with a citizen concerning
sex offender registration.
-Irrig o n A m bu
lance received report of a
79-year-old subject with
COPD having difficulty
breathing.
-BPD received re
port that a male subject was
bitten by a dog and the bite
broke the skin. -Boardman
Ambulance received report
of a male having seizures
and vomiting. He was trans-
D ecem ber 29: M orrow
County S heriff’s Office
received report of two male
subjects leaving G reen
Street going onto second,
both dressed in hoodies.
-MCSO received report of
a semi on 1-84 with flashers
on. The brakes froze up and
the maintenance truck was
on the way.
-MCSO received report
from the volunteer patrol
at the McCormack Slough
who said one or two hunt
ers were there on a no-hunt
day and have also driven
off-road illegally. They re
quested a deputy to assist in
locating and citing them.
-MCSO received request
for someone to talk about
the feral cat problem in
lone.
-MCSO received report that
someone ran into a vehicle
parked in the complainant’s
driveway in Heppner.
-MCSO received report of a
car in lone that was mostly
in the road and creating a
traffic hazard. The subject
moved the vehicle.
-MCSO received report
from a Heppner woman that
her dogs got out and she had
been trying to find them for
the past hour, but had to go
to work. The deputy said
if he found them he would
hold on to them. The neigh
bors found the dogs.
-MCSO received report
from an Irrigon subject that
her husband had been get
ting mail that was addressed
to someone else, but it has
he husband’s Social Secu
rity Number and their gas
card number. She requested
a deputy to make contact
with her.
-MCSO received report
of a cow out on the tracks
in Boardman. A deputy
was unable to locate the
animal.
-MCSO received report of
a fuel tank speeding on the
freeway.
-MCSO received report of a
dog complaint. MCSO cited
Portia Charlene Earnest, 56,
for Maintaining a Dog as a
Public Nuisance.
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