A ZephIR 300 wind lidar installed at Dogger Bank for the Forewind consortium has provided data which shows the technology has advanced to the stage where it can be used in future as an alternative to meteorological masts for wind data collection, according to Zephir Lidar.
The Dogger Bank projects being developed by the Forewind consortium will have a capacity of 4.8 GW and, as part of their assessment process, two meteorological mast platforms were installed during 2013.
In November 2014, a ZephIR 300 wind lidar was installed on the east meteorological mast platform by SeaRoc Group to provide continuous data above the existing mast height, while the mast underwent maintenance works. The lidar collected wind speed information for four months to April 2015, and when the meteorological mast was reinstalled in May 2015, it continued wind speed measurement at the mast’s base.
Results now published confirm the lidar was available for 100 percent of the time and correlations to the met mast were found to be excellent and at least as good as variations between individual cup anemometers, the company says.
“The ZephIR Lidar poses clear long-term financial and health and safety advantages over traditional anemometry as it requires fewer personnel to carry out maintenance tasks and vessel time offshore is significantly reduced,” Ian Locker, MD at ZephIR Lidar, said.
”The ZephIR 300 wind lidar allowed for there to be no gap in wind data during the mast maintenance period and has essentially extended the height of the mast significantly. It produced high availability and high accuracy of data, and was perfectly reliable, confirming that it could be used alone for wind data collection at a fraction of the cost.”
Nachaat Tahmaz, Forewind Project Manager, said that the lidar was installed as it offered the best solution to ensure there was no break in the wind data collection.
“We captured wind data using the lidar which, when compared to that gathered by the met masts, showed a strong correlation and opens up possibilities for future lidar use offshore,” Tahmaz said.