Weather monitoring and wind energy are no longer contradictory terms

As the German Weather Service (DWD) announced on Friday, the federal authority is reducing protection zones around weather measuring systems from 15 to 5 kilometres. This reduces no-go areas in the vicinity of weather radars by 90 percent, DWD calculated. It is true that wind turbines in the immediate vicinity of radars can significantly disrupt the quality of weather observations. If future wind farm operators are willing to make compromises, which can now be established near radars, the constraints of weather measurements can be offset, DWD chief Gerhard Adrian said. Wind farm operators can assist the Department of Social Development with anonymised operating data and any current meteorological data from wind turbine measurement systems. This made it possible to compensate for the radar measurements that were disrupted by moving the rotor blades.

In the future, DWD will only appeal against plans for wind farms within a five kilometer radius. The conflict between weather monitoring and the use of wind power must not be resolved yet, the DWD chief also analyzes. Because weather radars are based on unobstructed and remote locations, which is also interesting for wind energy projects. DWD will already be implementing individual weather radars for wind farms in other locations. However, this will only be possible once areas of future wind energy use have been identified. Only then does DWD have the necessary security planning in place.