CRANBERRY, N.J.-- Broadcast Wind LLC announced Monday that it was awarded a two-year contract by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop the powering of broadcast transmitters from wind energy.
The varying reflections from large wind turbines can create problems for broadcasters, especially TV broadcasters; however, with proper design these turbines can also power broadcast transmitters, reducing energy costs. Broadcast Wind has been developing methodologies to provide broadcasters the benefit of wind power without causing reception problems.
The announcement states: “Broadcast Wind is developing and verifying an engineering-based modeling system to predict and mitigate the RF interference that would be induced by operating a wind turbine in close proximity to a broadcast tower.”
The company added: “Our Predictive RF Modeling will enable wind turbines to be optimized for efficiency and to be sited on land near television broadcast towers. This will allow farmers to gain a whole new source of revenue for their land and local broadcasters to gain access to low cost wind power energy. Rural communities will gain by local capital investment, job creation, and the replacement of coal fired electricity with zero emission wind power generation.”
Broadcast Wind is also developing inexpensive, easily deployed, field monitoring probes for its wind study regions to record and report on the impact of the wind turbines on broadcast signals.
