Frazer-Nash has taken a leading role in producing industry recommended practice guidance for measurement technology in offshore wind farms, as one of the authors of a new report from the International Energy Agency Wind Technology Collaboration Programme (IEA Wind TCP).
The report recommends practice in the use of floating LiDAR1 systems - wind resource assessment tools for offshore wind farms - as a data source.
Frazer-Nash's Brian Gribben was one of the editors of the report. Brian said:
"The promise of floating LiDAR systems (FLS) as an alternative to meteorological masts is well known - they are much less expensive to install and operate, and are more flexible as they can be moved to alternative locations.
"However, FLS face two key challenges: maintaining accurate wind measurements on a moving platform at sea; and ensuring their remote data measurement and collection, power and communication systems are robust and reliable. Achieving this pre-normative standard is an important milestone towards full investor confidence in the systems and the data service they provide."
The report was developed by a team of expert practitioners that included DNV GL, Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES), the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and the University of Stuttgart, as well as Frazer-Nash.
The report can be downloaded here.
1 LiDAR: LIght Detection and Ranging.
