A study on the impact of easements in the deployment of wind farms near airport facilities

In this work we propose a method to explore the impact of aeronautical easements in the design of urban wind farms near airports. We provide a comprehensive review of airport easements, their classes, shapes and regulations, along with how and to what extent the different types of easements may affect the prospective installation of wind energy generation facilities near airports. We consider not only the physical easements, called Obstacle Limitation Surfaces (Approach Surface and others), but also the electromagnetic or radio easements associated to Communications, Navigation and Surveillance systems (radars and other air navigation aids). As a practical application, we study different cases of potential deployments of both isolated wind turbines and large wind farms, both around and/or inside four different airports in Spain. We give quantitative guidelines that could be used as a reference in the design process, easing the quick approval by the corresponding national air safety authority.