Guidebook for Energy Facilities Compatibility with Airports and Airspace (2014)

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1 The energy industry is going through a transformation driven in part by public policy and sustained by technological innovation and market development. These changes have led to a geographic expansion in the deployment of energy projects producing an increase in potential conflicts with airports and airspace. ACRP Synthesis 28: Investigating Safety Impacts of Energy Technologies on Airports and Aviation, reviewed the state of information and airport practice for this topic. The researchers concluded that additional research is needed to further evaluate the safety effects that energy technologies may have on the air transportation system and to develop best practices to address such effects. ACRP 02-38, “The Guidebook for Energy Facilities Compatibility with Airports and Airspace,” provides a comprehensive review of the National Airspace System (NAS) and the potential effects of energy technologies on the NAS, followed by best practices and guidelines for avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating impacts. The Guidebook provides a thorough review of airspace and energy technologies as a basis for assessing impacts. The airspace review provides a definition of the NAS and discusses its components from take-off to landing, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) protection of airspace as a public good, airspace users types, and ways in which airspace may change in the future. The energy technologies reviewed that have a potential impact on airports and airspace are solar, wind, oil and gas drilling, power plant stacks and cooling towers, and electrical transmission. The potential impacts associated with these technologies are solar glare, radar interference, and turbulence from wind (as well as meteorological evaluation towers as a hazard), physical obstructions and ancillary hazards from oil and gas drilling, thermal plume turbulence from power plants, and physical obstructions from electrical transmission. Some of these impacts are physical and, therefore, more readily quantifiable, while others are non-physical and more difficult to define. A review of the potential impacts of energy facilities impacts on airports and airspace must be conducted in the context of some core concepts about the role of energy and aviation in the country, including the following: • The expansion and modernization of our domestic energy development is central to our national interests. • The NAS, also critical to our national interests, is a finite resource that must be maintained and enhanced to ensure safe and efficient air travel. • Energy and aviation are both critical to the future economic prosperity of the country. • It is best to avoid energy impacts on aviation; impacts should be minimized and mitigated only when necessary. Research for this Guidebook also revealed some general conclusions about the difficulty of assessing potential impacts on airports and airspace. These conclusions are not exclusive to Executive Summary

2energy technologies but, due to the increase in potential conflicts posed by energy technologies, they are an important part of assessing aviation safety impacts from energy and identifying best practices and guidelines. • It is simple to determine if a structure results in a physical impingement of airspace but it is complex to determine if the physical impingement results in a significant impact. • Structures that do not result in a physical impingement of airspace may still pose a significant risk to aviation. • Non-physical impacts (e.g., glare and turbulence) are not well defined, making it difficult to develop associated guidance. • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reviews on-airport energy projects but may not review many off-airport projects. The Guidebook summarizes a number of new research initiatives, some of which were conducted as part of or in association with this project, and others that were entirely inde- pendent. These research efforts were used to inform best practices and guidelines, including the following: • Glare measurements from commercially available solar panels. • Glare modeling and model verification. • Survey of pilots on their experience with glare. • Wind turbine radar research, conducted under the Interagency Field Test and Evaluation Program (IFT&E). • Development of new wind power and thermal plume turbulence modeling tools. • Survey of airports located proximate to new electrical transmission infrastructure. The main purpose of the Guidebook is to present best practices for aviation safety associated with planning, developing, and constructing energy production and transmission technologies at and around airports. Fulfilling this objective was a challenge given the variety of technolo- gies and types of impacts, as well as the general lack of performance standards available for assessing impacts. To meet this challenge, Chapter 4, “Guidance” provides a set of con- cise guidelines and practical considerations for siting and managing energy projects in the aviation environment. Chapter 4 can be used as a stand-alone reference tool with information presented in two formats. The first section lists best practices for each energy technology, allowing users to quickly review issues particular to a proposed project. The second section includes general guidance for siting structures to avoid physical obstructions based on the height of the structure, as well as other design observations for each energy technology type. Upon reflection, the intersection of energy and aviation has received a significant amount of attention over the past few years. The result of this body of work has been the development of several new tools to help energy and aviation professionals improve the siting of energy projects, including those advocated for by airports to increase revenue for their airport business. While several areas requiring additional research remain, successful energy project siting will continue to depend on close coordination between project stakeholders and regulatory officials, combined with the utilization of new knowledge related to aviation impacts from energy technologies and new tools for measuring and minimizing these impacts.