Lidar data achieves commercial acceptance

19th November 2014

ZephIR Lidar

Barney Scott

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Fraunhofer has successfully validated a wind lidar buoy, confirming the commercial acceptance of wind data from the on-board ZephIR lidar for use in floating offshore energy assessments, according to the Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator roadmap's criteria for the commercial acceptance of floating lidar technology.

An offshore verification test was performed with the buoy, equipped with a ZephIR 300 Lidar next to the FINO1 met mast, in the German North Sea. Both the availability and the accuracy of the floating lidar system were assessed against the offshore test site, set up as a lidar-mast comparison adhering to IEC 61400-12-1 ed.2 CD, where wind measurements from the lidar and the mast are compared under different control conditions.

The Fraunhofer buoy is a compact floating lidar with an encapsulated, well-protected and integrated wind lidar device, combined with a reliable power supply strategy and an efficient motion correction algorithm.

Results of the trial demonstrate that the lidar-based system delivers excellent correlations and extremely high data availability when compared to a traditional tall met mast structure.

Ian Locker, Managing Director, ZephIR Lidar, welcomed the early results: “Offshore, ZephIR 300’s unique 50Hz measurements effectively freeze any motion encountered in platforms such as the Fraunhofer IWES Wind Lidar Buoy. Over 80% of the industry’s floating lidar providers have now chosen ZephIR for their platform and we are very pleased to see results within the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator roadmap”.