Camouflage Paint Wind Turbines

greyteam1959

Why do they insist on painting wind turbines white ???
If they painted them in camouflage colours to match their environment they would not be so glaringly obvious.

EricMears

For camouflage to work, the thing has to be painted roughly the same colour as whatever is behind it.

Wind turbines are usually on high ground, always high above the adjacent ground level and very seldom viewable with any ground based feature in the background.

On a nice day, you could perhaps justify painting them blue - but how often do we have a clear blue sky ?

Dark grey is perhaps more common - but still a pretty poor match on most days.

Arguably, whatever the background sky colour there's always a chance of seeing a fluffy white cloud - so perhaps you could say they're already painted in the best camouflage colour.

Martyn1981

What Eric said.

Extract from Scottish Natural Heritage report:

http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/A337202.pdf

3.7 Selecting the most appropriate colour for a turbine(s) is an important part of detailed windfarm design and mitigation. It has previously been assumed that wind turbines could be painted a colour that would camouflage them against their background. However, experience has shown that no single colour of wind turbine will consistently blend with its background and it is more important to choose a colour that will relate positively to a range of backdrops seen within different views
and in different weather conditions.

3.8 When determining the most appropriate colour for wind turbines, key considerations are:
– the immediate landscape context and anticipated backcloth against which the turbines will be viewed predominantly (for example sky, heather moorland, woodland);
– the direction the turbines will most frequently be viewed from (including the angle of the sun and how it is likely to reflect on the wind turbines);
– the predominant weather conditions (which will dictate typical sky colour and will vary for different parts of the country);
– seasonal variation in landscape colours;

Also, I believe there are strict rules about the visibility of turbines laid down by the aviation authorities.

Personally, I'd like to see a large plastic cone placed around the base, with pictures of windows drawn on it, and an image of Windy Miller standing in an open doorway. Just a thought!

Mart.

spgsc531

Martyn1981 wrote: »

What Eric said.



Also, I believe there are strict rules about the visibility of turbines laid down by the aviation authorities.

Personally, I'd like to see a large plastic cone placed around the base, with pictures of windows drawn on it, and an image of Windy Miller standing in an open doorway. Just a thought!(1)

Mart.

I bet Military and other low flying aircraft would just love this, to go with the camouflaged power cables and pylons. What a (/sarcasm on) Great! (/sarcasm off) idea.

(1) You forgot the Windy Miller music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyz_jv_xiB8

Although I prefer Windy Miller drunk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d27hPy38EyI

Kernel_Sanders

penrhyn wrote: »

A better solution would be a few kilos of Semtex, no loss of power to the grid, saving on the vast subsidies to wealthy landowners and operators, no need for green levy on fuel bills, a win all round, boom!

I was just wondering if you have been contacted by the anti-terrorist squad in the three months since you made this post.

penrhyn

Still here, maybe I'm an agent provocateur .
Funny though, I'd completely forgot about that post.
On reflection I'll delete it.