North Hoyle Windfarm Report
6 MCA Radar trials 6.2 Small vessel radar evaluation 6.2.1 Overview and method To evaluate the operational use of typical small vessel radar systems when used to detect vessels within and close to wind farms. With the Rhyl lifeboat "Lill Cunningham" lifeboat stationary very close to the northern side of turbine 3, the Hoylake lifeboat "Lady of Hilbre" traversed the wind farm on a track midway between the turbine rows 10 to 6 and 15 to 11, on a straight line course parallel to these towers. The vessel then proceeded to the south of turbine 21 and similarly passed between the rows 16 to 20 and 21 to 25. Finally, the vessel proceeded to a point 250m north of turbine 30 and followed a course parallel to the northern boundary of the wind farm. The stationary "Lill Cunningham" at turbine 3, fitted with the video camera, with the radar set on the 3 nautical miles range, recorded the displayed data. The data was analysed to determine the blind arcs and shadow areas produced by turbine 3 and others in the wind farm. The courses followed are illustrated in Figure 6-3 and pictures of the life boats used are shown in Figure 6-4 and Figure 6-5. Figure 6-3: MCA small vessel radar detection capabilities schematic
Figure 6-4: The Hoylake RNLI lifeboat "Lady of Hilbre" (top) and the Rhyl RNLI lifeboat "Lill Cunningham" (bottom) Figure 6-5: The Rhyl RNLI inshore lifeboat |
