Vestas supplies smart wind turbines in Sweden

Vestas has supplied turbines equipped with the Obstacle Collision Avoidance System (OCAS) technology for three wind farms located island of Gotland, Sweden.

The OCAS system turbines were provided to Gansparken, Näsudden väst and Stugyl wind farms co-owned by Wickman Wind and 700 smaller companies and private owners.

The wind farms consist of 27 Vestas turbines of type V90-2.0 MW and V90-3.0 MW-turbines.

The radar powered OCAS system automatically activates lights of the wind plant if an airplane is flying very close to it and deactivates the lights once the plane safely passes by the site and minimises the visual impact on the surrounding environment.

Vestas Northern Europe Nordics & Baltics Sales vice president Krister Poole Jönsson said the company is working with new solutions to integrate wind power into immediately environment of human beings.

"We experience increasing demand for radar-controlled aviation lights that minimize the lighting impact from wind power plants," Jönsson said.

Wickman Wind CEO Andreas Wickman said the three wind farms now have the radar-controlled aviation lights.

"The only concern they have had has been related to visual impact caused by the aviation lights," Wickman added.

"This concern has now been mitigated with the installation of the OCAS system and we are receiving a lot of positive feed-back from the locals."

Vestas acquired the technology from Norwegian radar specialists in October 2011.

The OCAS system has been approved by US, Canadian, Norwegian, and Swedish aviation authorities and has already been installed at over 60 sites across Europe and North America.

Image: Vestas supplies OCAS equppied turbines in Sweden. Photo: Vestas