The first commercial offshore wind measurement campaign using floating LiDAR in European waters has kicked off in the Irish Sea. FLiDAR NV has deployed one of its innovative LiDAR buoys for DONG Energy in the southern East Irish Sea.
DONG Energy, the world’s leading offshore wind developer, selected the FLiDAR equipment due to its high accuracy and cost effective data service. The partnership initially involves a one year measurement campaign in the Irish Sea.
Hugh Yendole at DONG Energy’s Wind business said; “The FLiDAR unit represents another example of how we are looking at technology across the development and construction process to help lower the cost of offshore wind. We are looking forward to seeing the results from the tests in the Irish Sea that will help to inform our potential future projects in the area.”
The General Manager of FLiDAR, Bruce Douglas, said “We are delighted to be delivering low-cost, high-value wind data to DONG Energy. The FLiDAR technology and the ongoing partnership with DONG Energy represent a major break-through for the offshore wind industry, enabling further cost reductions for offshore wind resource assessments”.
The technology has been developed by 3E, global renewable energy consultancy and software services provider, Offshore & Wind Assistance (OWA), the subsidiary of marine contractor Geosea focussing on Operations and Maintenance and Leosphere, the world’s leading LiDAR company.
The FLiDAR equipment consists of a marine buoy equipped with a state-of-the-art buoy-adapted LEOSPHERE WINDCUBERv2 LiDAR held in a passive mechanical stabilisation system. It has previously been tested and validated in the North Sea and in the Irish Sea (as part of the UK’s Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator programme). The performance has been analysed and validated by third parties and has been proven to deliver wind data with accuracy equivalent to standard offshore wind measurements.
UPCOMING EVENTS
FLiDAR will be at the following events:
RenewableUK offshore wind event in Manchester from 12-13 June
EWEA offshore wind event in Frankfurt from 19-21 November
DongLogo
DONG Energy is one of the leading energy groups in Northern Europe. Our business is based on procuring, producing, distributing and trading in energy and related products in Northern Europe. DONG Energy has nearly 7,000 employees and is headquartered in Denmark. The Group generated DKK 67 billion (EUR 9.0 billion) in revenue in 2012. For further information, see www.dongenergy.com
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FLiDAR N.V. , based in Oostende, Belgium, is a joint venture established in August 2012 between 3E and OWA (DEME group), to build, deploy and operate floating LiDAR based measurement devices.
FLiDAR N.V. combines the experience of 3E, an independent consultant and software services provider with more than 10 years of experience in offshore wind measurement and modelling, OWA, a daughter company of DEME, an offshore contractor with huge amount of experience in offshore operations and the LiDAR supplier, LEOSPHERE, the world’s leading manufacturer of LiDAR technology.
The FLiDAR device can measure wind potential up to 200m above mean sea level with accuracy similar to a standard offshore measurement mast, but at significantly lower costs. www.FLiDAR.com
