question about wind turbine lighting rules (i.e. the lights to keep planes from hitting them)?
Filed in Uncategorized on Jan.23, 2009
Julep asked:
I saw a turbine from the back at night the other evening. It had a red light at the top of the pole (highest stationary point).
I saw a turbine from the back at night the other evening. It had a red light at the top of the pole (highest stationary point).
I could not see a light on the front… but it seemed to be tall enough to need aircraft warning lights. . .
Which got me to wondering… the blades reach far higher than the stationary part, why weren’t they lit? especially since they also reach out to the sides, making it a much larger area of danger for planes, helicopters, etc…. was this just not as tall a turbine as I thought?
What are the rules about how a turbine has to be lit to warn nearby craft? is this something that the law hasn’t caught up with??
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January 22nd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
The blades are difficult to light. A pilot should observe the lights and steer far enough around them that the blades are irrelevant.
It may be an interesting legal issue in the future.
DK
January 24th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I’m going to ask my husband this question when he gets home. I cannot think of anyone more qualified to answer it, since he spent years working on helicopters, as a helicopter mechanic and curently works as a commercial wind turbine tech.
I can come up with some of the reasons, however. During bad weather, wind turbines can build up ice. When the ice sluffs off the blade, it would take any lights with it.
I know at my husbands site, not all the turbines have the warning lights on them. I cannot remember if it’s every other one, or every third one.
Another reason they couldn’t put the lights on the ends of the blade is of cource how would you change them? They can climb to the top of the wind turbines, and change the bulbs, but messing with the blades involves a crane…a very large, and very expensive crane. The wind turbine sites do not own the cranes, they rent them (these are multi million dollar cranes I’m talking about).
No, it’s not something the law hasn’t caught up with. The turbines have all kinds of regulations they have to meet (airplane warning lights included).
I’m also going to answer from my medical standpoint. You’d have to be careful about moving lights on the blades. It might possibly send people into epileptic fits…even people who are not normaly epileptic. They would be quiet the eyesore at night, giant spinning lights. It would cause traffic accidents, as tired people, and drunks became mezmorized by them, and drove off the road, or into other vehicles.
Watch this video, and you will get a much better idea of how the inside of turbines looks, the scale of turbines, and what I mean when I say bulbs on blades couldn’t be changed.
Also there is the whole delicate balance/pitch thing of the blades…don’t want to tinker with that, or you will have a very expensive blade grenading.
~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years
January 27th, 2009 at 12:16 am
My wife, garnet, mentioned your question to me, and asked if I would comment.
Yes, the turbines are tall enough to require FAA lights, (aircraft warning lights) on them. The lights are required to mark the periphery of the wind farm. Wind farms are noted on the aircraft navigation charts as a navigation hazard…this is one of the hurdles that must be jumped when you are filing for permits to build a wind farm. On the chart, it notes the elevation of the turbines, and the height of the obstruction…in this case the height of the wind turbine to the tip of the blade when it is vertical. The entire area of a wind farm is noted as a navigation hazard, and pilots are trained to heed warnings on the charts.
No, this is not a lawsuit waiting to happen. If it was an issue from a legal standpoint, factories with tall exhaust stacks and skyscrapers would also be in danger of being sued. If an aircraft were to collide with a wind turbine, the pilot has about a 99% chance of being sued, not the other way around…provided they survived.
On the other hand, if we have a power outage, (I know this sounds funny since the turbines generate power, but it does happen) and the FAA lights are not lit, the park owner is required to notify the FAA by contacting the nearest airport, or nearest major airport, to inform them that the lights are not on.
As far as putting lights on the tip of the blades, the blades narrow down to less than one foot in width at the tip of the blade, a person could not get down there to run wiring, or repair a light that was out. Garnet was correct, to work on the blades requires a very large crane. To work on a single blade requires a 225 ton road mobile (hydro) crane with 300 feet of boom on it at a minimum. (such as a GROVE 5120B) If the entire rotor assembly needs to be lowered for repairs, you need a large crawler crane with 300 feet of stick. An example of this type of crane is a MANITOWOC 2250. If you would like to see what this looks like doing turbine work, go to and click on about us. The bottom picture is (I think) their 2250 working on a turbine.
Hope this helps you,
D_Offio