AirSentinel
Aircraft detection lighting systemThe challenge
Proposals to install wind turbines or entire wind farms often face local resistance. This is due in part to the light pollution that wind turbines emit at night.
As aviation regulations require any obstacle more than 100 metres tall to be fitted with obstruction lights to keep aircraft from colliding with them, wind farm planners and operators seek to mitigate light pollution by switching obstruction lights off at night whenever possible.
With a proper solution in place, obstruction lights would only be switched on when low-level flying objects are at risk of colliding with the wind turbine.
Our solution
The challenge for wind farm planners and operator to reduce light pollution is a task for the HENSOLDT AirSentinel Aircraft Detection Lighting System, a transponder-based ADLS/BNK. AirSentinel detects on-board transponder signals emitted by aircraft that are airborne near wind farms. It uses these signals to track approaching aircraft that may pose a hazard, alerting the lighting system on the wind turbine. This activates the obstacle lights for as long as it takes for the aircraft to safely exit the danger zone.
AirSentinel is a simple, reliable solution for use by wind farm developers, manufacturers of obstacle lighting and operations and maintenance providers. Once AirSentinel is installed, the obstacle lights on wind turbines can be left switched off by default and will be illuminated only as needed.
Features and benefits
Features
- Ethernet interface: TCP/IP, Modbus, ASTERIX
- Withstands environmental conditions at the wind-turbine nacelle
- Meets latest regulations and recommendations: BMVI-LF15-20200424-SF-A006
- High MTBF, no need for elaborate preventive maintenance
- Available for new wind-turbine construction or for retrofitting existing assets
- Compatible with all existing lighting systems
- Time stamping and recording of aircraft detections
Benefits
- Fully passive solution
- Adequate safety margins for wind farms and pilots
- Improved community acceptance of wind farms
- Easy interfacing with all ADLS-compatible obstruction lighting systems
- Easy to integrate or retrofit on any wind farm installation
- Fail safe: in case of failure, lights are automatically activated
- With a large coverage radius, AirSentinel can be used for a single turbine or an entire complete wind farm, reducing and mutualising costs
