Double LiDAR

Canadian AXYS Technologies has announced the deployment of tw dual-LiDAR WindSentinel floating LiDAR systems, utilising the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s offshore anemometry mast. In the North Sea offshore Northumberland, UK. According to AXYS, this will be the world’s first deployment of a floating LiDAR system to feature two LiDARs, as each system has an additional Zephir 300, AXYS’ first deployment of this sensor

The WindSentinel systems will be deployed three nautical miles off the coast of Blyth, Northumberland for a one month validation and research study at the ORE Catapult’s National Renewable Energy Centre. They will then be moved to France for a 12-month campaign as part of a bankable energy assessment for two commercial wind farms.

“AXYS is very pleased with the world’s first deployment of two WindSentinel systems, each equipped with two LiDARs, for validation against the mast at Blyth,” said Graham Howe, Director of Sales at AXYS Technologies. “We look forward to working more with ORE Catapult on innovative technologies designed to reduce the cost of offshore wind.”

ORE Catapult’s Project and Technical Manager, Jonathan Hughes, said: “It is really exciting to see our met mast being used to play a key part in a ground-breaking and innovative project to validate two dual-LiDAR floating LiDAR systems. This project reinforces the importance of the mast for enabling research, development, testing, validation and verification of remote sensing technologies, which are vital to reducing the cost of offshore consenting.”

The tip height of the mast is 104m above mean sea level (AMSL) and the platform is equipped with wind and environmental instrumentation, including Class 1 anemometry and a fixed LiDAR system. It is situated in 38m of water in conditions representative of a Round 3 offshore wind site. These WindSentinel systems are the first in the world to be equipped with fully redundant LiDAR systems, which help to ensure high data availability and reliability. In addition to accurately measuring wind speed and wind direction up to 200m they will also gather metocean data, including directional waves, ocean currents, tide, salinity, water temperature, atmospheric pressure and air temperature.