The Sopcawind project has developed new software to optimize wind farm placement in Europe, taking into account criteria as varied as wind power, local environment characteristics, potential interference with communication systems, noise, nearby housing exposure to the sun, visual impact or even the existence of archaeological artifacts on site.
The software aims to facilitate the design of wind farms by ensuring that all the above-mentioned aspects are taken into consideration in the wind farm design process, thus avoiding post-construction trouble and reducing cost. Multiple stakeholders from both the public and private sectors provided precious data to feed the system. Tecnalia led the project, while Tecnalia's Signal Processing and Radiocommunications Group (TSR) particularly helped create the algorithms that enable a thorough evaluation of possible impact on radars, air navigation system aids and other telecommunications. In addition to optimising the design of wind farms and reducing the time necessary to undertake viability studies, the project is expected to impact future legislation in the field of telecommunication interference. The characterization of the signal emitted by wind turbines over the UHF waveband and its influence on the quality of the television signal could be used for drafting future international regulation, Tecnalia noted.
