Austria introduces mandatory ADLS for wind turbines

Austria is now also introducing Aircraft Detection Lighting Systems (ADLS) for wind turbines. The corresponding law was was passed by the Federal Council this week.

Aircraft Detection Lighting Systems reduce the flashing of wind turbines at night to a minimum. This works by the ADLS system monitoring the airspace around a wind farm. The obstruction lights of the wind turbines are only activated when an aircraft is in the vicinity. One of the leading ADLS systems is the light:guard system.

In Germany, on-demand night-time marking is required by law and has already been tested in practice. Austria is now following suit after the wind industry also spoke out in favor of the use of ADLS.

In Austria, however, things are to be regulated differently. While in Germany each wind farm will obtain its own ADLS system from a provider, Austro Control will be centrally responsible in Austria. The monitoring of Austrian airspace and signaling to the wind farm will be carried out by Austro Control for a fee. The wind farm must be able to receive and process the signal in order to control the suppression of the lighting.

Austrian wind farm operators will therefore be responsible for equipping their turbines with an ADLS interface. The obligation applies to all wind turbines. It can be assumed that the IT infrastructure of existing turbines will have to be retrofitted.

As an experienced ADLS expert with many systems in use, Light:Guard can already make Austrian operators an offer. Our Light Control Unit (LCU-T) works with all turbine types and is offered as a standard ADLS interface by Nordex, for example.