As part of the ongoing engineering works for the design of the wind turbine generators (WTGs), their foundations and array layout, Seagreen Wind Energy Limited has successfully deployed two ZephIR Wind LiDAR units to measure meteorological data, in the form of wind speeds and wind direction.
One of the LiDAR units was deployed on a floating buoy within the Seagreen Zone and the other LiDAR unit was deployed on the Isle of May, at the locations shown below:
These LiDAR units will be deployed for a period of two years until March 2019.
The floating LiDAR, was installed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology and consists of a modified navigational buoy to accommodate the centrally mounted LiDAR unit, micro-wind turbines, solar panels and satellite communications equipment.
The Isle of May LiDAR, shown shortly after installation in Figure 3, was installed by RES, together with a power supply, consisting of four solar panels and two fuel cell units.
Both of these LiDAR units are able to work autonomously for a period of six months and communicate their measured data back to the project team for analysis on a daily basis.
The LiDAR units measure wind speeds and wind direction at various different heights around and above the proposed heights of the wind turbine hub and blades.
The floating LiDAR will provide the primary dataset, which will be correlated with the Isle of May LiDAR.
Meteorological data is critical to the successful design of a wind farm, which will provide opportunities for wind turbine array layout optimisation. Accurate knowledge of climatic conditions will allow the wind turbine generator (WTG) design, including the tower, and especially foundation design, to be optimised.