Deutsche Windtechnik to Install Aircraft Detection Light System on Butendiek Offshore Wind Farm

Wind Farm Update

February 7, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

Deutsche Windtechnik has won a new tender for the installation of an Aircraft Detection Light System (ADLS) on an offshore wind farm in Germany. After equipping the Nordergründe offshore wind farm with ADLS last year, the company will now do the same on the Butendiek offshore wind farm.

The contract for Butendiek was signed at the end of last year, says Deutsche Windtechnik, which already started preparing for the work.

The ADLS installation will take place during the summer months this year, when there is less wind, with the breeding seasons of some sea birds also to be factored in. The work will be combined with routine maintenance deployments, according to the company.

“[It] is important to not only develop a good technical concept but also to take basic conditions such as environmental requirements into consideration, and to keep the logistical effort low and the availability high”, said Jens Landwehr, Managing Director of Deutsche Windtechnik’s offshore unit.

The 288 MW Butendiek offshore wind farm, operational since 2015, comprises 80 Siemens SWT 3.6-120 turbines. The wind farm is located some 32 kilometres west of the island of Sylt.

In May last year, Deutsche Windtechnik completed outfitting the 18 turbines at the Nordergründe offshore wind farm with its transponder-based ADLS. A few months later, the wind farm received an operating permit from the relevant authorities, making Nordergründe the world’s first project of its kind to be equipped with a fully functional, officially approved Aircraft Detection Light System.

In Germany, the wind turbines at all offshore wind farms must be fitted with ADLS by the end of 2023 to be in accordance with the requirements from the German Federal Network Agency.

The new law (Bedarfgesteuerte Nachtkennzeichnung; BNK), which went into effect on 1 January for onshore wind farms and will be effective for offshore wind farms from 1 January 2024, aims to minimise light pollution and energy consumption.

Since last year, offshore wind farm owners and operators have started working on retrofitting their projects’ turbines with ADLS systems to meet federal regulations.

With an ADLS system, the lighting switches on only after an aircraft is detected in a wind farm’s proximity. Namely, an ADLS detects an aircraft flying within a radius of few kilometres and at an altitude of several hundreds metres above a wind farm, which then triggers the lights on wind turbines to be turned on.