Boat Travel and Wind Farms

When I had first looked at this issue I was only thinking about the proximity of the turbines to the channels that the boats would be traveling and if it would interfere with recreational boating. But when I did some more research another side of the issue emerged the problem with radar and whether or not the turbines would cause interference with the the radar. The Coat Guard funded a study that would look at the effects of the wind farms on the radar of boats. They put together three different scenarios to look at with different boats going in different directions. The main issue they were looking for was whether larger boats would be able to see smaller boats coming out of the wind farm or if the radar would be affect by the turbines not allowing the larger boats to see them. What the Coast Guard would be worried about the blades of the turbines doing would be side lobes, beam widths and ghost turbines. After the study they determined that there would not be any major problems. They also did address the proximity of the turbines saying that some of the turbines were within 400 yards of shipping channels and suggested moving the turbines to a 3 nautical mile safety zone.