Murra Warra wind farm interferes with BOM radar

A wind farm in Western Victorian appears to be interfering with the Bureau of Meteorology’s radar, creating a false impression of rain.

The BOM's Rainbow radar picked up false rainfall over the Murra Warra wind farm on Monday morning, a situation farmers fear will get worse as more turbines are built.

A Western Victorian wind farm appears to be interfering with the Bureau of Meteorology’s radar, creating the false impression of rainfall.

Farmer Gerald Feeny noticed the BOM’s Rainbow radar showed an isolated patch of flickering blue sitting over the Murra Warra wind farm’s turbines this morning, despite the nearest rainfall band being 50kms to the northeast.

“If you put hundreds of these things around, what use is our radar,” Mr Feeny said.

He said radar saved farmers a fortune in alerting them to delay spraying and to protect machinery and recently harvested grain.

Numerous wind farm planning applications warn of interference with BOM radar, including the 230 turbine Warracknabeal Energy Park.

GHD consultants undertook an electromagnetic interference assessment of the energy park that found “the proposed wind farm is expected to impact the Bureau of Meteorology radar, specifically the Rainbow radar which provides weather watch services in the vicinity of the proposed wind farm area”.

“Initial consultation with the BOM has indicated that the current location of the wind farm will put a major risk on the Rainbow radar and will significantly reduce the radar services at a large area (more than 50 degrees azimuth angle).”

Wind farms risk undermining the BoM's rainfall radar, by creating false rainfall images, such as this one that remained flickering for three hours this morning.

The $10 million Rainbow radar station was built in 2020, after intense lobbying by the Wimmera Development Association and grain growers who wanted the BOM to plug a hole in its network that had left them unable to see rain bands sweeping in from the west.

The radar typically has capability to indicate the weather at 250 km or more, but the Allan and Albanese Governments’ plan to build the Victoria-NSW Interconnector, is set to lead to more wind farms being rolled out across the state’s west.

Other state’s have raised the risk of wind farms interfering with rainfall and aviation radar.

The Queensland Government’s wind farm planning guidelines state: “the movement, material and size of wind turbines and blades, as well as the marking and lighting, also have the potential to interfere with radio communications equipment for other aircraft and the meteorological radar”.

The BoM has previously stated that wind farms can interfere with its radar network, causing false readings that suggest rainfall where it does not exist.