Air traffic control makes way for new wind turbines | newsletter

BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – German air traffic control is making more space around its navigation systems to build wind turbines. As announced by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Transport on Monday, protected areas around the so-called rotating radio beacons are being checked. In many cases, this test has already had a positive result. Rotating beacons send radio signals to aircraft to aid navigation.

Until now, according to air traffic control, there was usually a protection zone with a radius of 15 kilometers around the radio navigation systems. This is to reduce the risk of wireless signal disruption. The protection zone will likely be reduced to 7 km for the majority of systems. Even in protected areas, building a wind turbine is not entirely impossible, but it does require complex testing. According to air traffic control, there are currently about 1,600 wind turbines in the protected areas.

Transport Minister Volker Wessing (FDP) said short distances “removed a significant obstacle to the expansion of wind energy on the ground”. Wind energy is of great importance to Germany’s climate-friendly energy supply. Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has confirmed that air navigation will remain safe./tam/DP/ngu