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4. September 2024
Case Study
Windplan Groen, a large wind farm cluster in Flevoland, Netherlands, consisting of 90 wind turbines with a total capacity of 500 MW, faced challenges related to light pollution caused by constant red lights on turbines during the evening and night. Local residents expressed concerns over the disruption of the natural landscape due to these lights.
To address this issue, an Aircraft Detection Lighting System (ADLS) was implemented, provided by Light:Guard in partnership with dutch partner Topwind. The ADLS technology uses aircraft transponder signals and multilateration (MLAT) to precisely detect aircraft proximity, activating the turbine lights only when necessary. The system’s infrastructure includes seven Light:Guard Receivers (LGRs) and eleven Light Control Units (LCUs) across the wind farm cluster.
The ADLS significantly reduced light pollution, with lights remaining off for an average of 97% of the time during its first month of operation in August 2024, despite high levels of aircraft activity. The system demonstrated high reliability, with minimal errors, enhancing both local community acceptance of the wind farms and ensuring air traffic safety.
Windplan Groen is a wind farm cluster in Flevoland (Netherlands), covering the municipalities of Dronten and Lelystad. It contains 90 wind turbines from manufacturers like Vestas, Nordex & GE, providing approximately 500 MW of capacity and generating around 1800 GWh annually. This makes it the largest wind farm on Dutch soil.
Residents near the Windplan Groen wind farms have expressed frustration over the constant red lights on wind turbines during the evening and night, which disrupt the natural landscape and contribute to light pollution.
The light:guard Aircraft Detection Lighting System (ADLS), offered by Light:Guard in cooperation with the local partner Topwind, allows wind turbines to keep their obstruction lights off at night, only activating them when an aircraft is detected nearby.
In particular, ADLS uses transponder signals from aircraft, and multilateration (MLAT) technology to precisely identify their location. Seven Light:Guard Receivers (LGRs) and eleven Light Control Units (LCUs) have been installed as ADLS infrastructure.
This innovative solution minimizes light pollution and improves local acceptance of wind farms, while still ensuring air traffic safety.
Analysing the results of the lights-on/off times, the system showed excellent and consistent outcomes across the eleven wind farms that make up the Windplan Groen. During August 2024, the first month of activation, the lights-off time was on average above 97%, despite fairly intense aircraft activity. The share of “lights on” and “errors” were minimal, thus confirming the high quality of the system. As an example, Figure 1 shows the percentages for lights-on/off-times for Wind Farm Olsterwind, part of Groen.
Satisfied with the results
"We heard from local residents of Windplan Groen that they were annoyed by the red lights of our turbines. That is why we are so happy with the light:guard system, which ensures that the red lights are hardly ever on. We want to be a good neighbour for our environment. Light:Guard, together with the Dutch Topwind, have contributed to that. We really like that."
"This is why we picked Light:Guard as our partner: because their system produces great results and together we can give the people of the Netherlands the night back."
"I'm very proud of what the Topwind and Light:Guard teams have achieved bringing our ADLS system to the Netherlands. I cannot stress enough how these great results and high lights-off times are only possible because all parties worked well together with us: the manufacturers, ILT and especially Windplan Groen. The project is a true benchmark for us and shows what's possible with multilateration."
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How it went down
Windplan Groen is being planned.
Windplan Groen is being erected.
Light:Guard and Topwind start their collaboration. From now on, Topwind distributes the light:guard system in the Netherlands.
Windplan Groen orders the light:guard ADLS from Topwind.
ADLS installation begins. Seven turbines get equipped with Light:Guard receivers. This makes multilateration at the location possible. Each of the 11 wind farms gets an an ADLS server, the LCU-T, to regulate the lighting indididually.
ADLS installation is finished. The testing and measurement by Light:Guard and approval by dutch authority Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT) starts.
ILT gives their conformity of no objection. Thus, the light:guard Aircraft Detection Lighting System is being activated. All eleven wind farms at Windplan Groen are dark now.