Floating buoy's wind lidar collects metocean data

28th May 2015

ZephIR Lidar

Barney Scott

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The EOLOS floating buoy featuring a ZephIR wind LiDAR, one of KIC InnoEnergy’s start-up projects, has won the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Innovators Award at the InnovEIT conference, Budapest, in recognition of the product’s potential to have a significant societal and economic impact.

Rajai Aghabi, Founder, EOLOS Floating Lidar Solutions, said: “We are very pleased that EOLOS has been recognised by these awards for being the best in innovation to advancing sustainable growth and competitiveness in the field of sustainable energy. Since foundation of the project, it has been my real desire to ensure that this business really embodies these core blocks. With the support from ZephIR Lidar we deliver a truly innovative product to the field of offshore wind energy.”

The EOLOS FLS200, a floating platform, features the industry-leading wind lidar solution ZephIR 300, to deliver accurate, bankable metocean data for offshore wind farm planning, development and operation at a fraction of the cost of traditional offshore met masts. EOLOS and ZephIR are currently on trial at ECN’s Ijmuiden offshore met mast with early performance being demonstrated that will meet all KPIs within the Carbon Trust Roadmap for commercial acceptance of floating wind lidar.

The Barcelona-based business was set up when founder Rajai Aghabi identified that there was a need to develop a more cost-effective way to measure wind speed at prospective off-shore sites for wind farms. The business was selected by KIC InnoEnergy to go through their Highway Business Creation programme, which provides tailored support, funding and access to partners across the European energy eco-system. EOLOS selected ZephIR 300 wind lidar for this project due to unique high-resolution wind data collected by continuous wave lidars and unique to ZephIR, and its ability to operate for extended periods of time offshore with no need for annual servicing or re-calibration within warranty periods.

Matt Smith, responsible for ZephIR’s offshore commercial offerings noted: “It has been a pleasure to work with the development of this product which has combined scientific and engineering rigour to deliver an accurate and practical wind measurement tool. We can expect excellent results from this trial and we look forward to being a part of EOLOS’s continued success.”