Germany: GL Garrad Hassan Commissioned for “FINO Wind” Research Project

DWD (German Weather Service) has commissioned GL Garrad Hassan to be responsible for an extensive sub-project within the scope of the “FINO Wind” research project. This involves taking an inventory of the metadata, utilisation and collection of LiDAR wind measurement data for the correction of mast effects, as well as the uncertainty estimation and assessment of the measuring set-up and data.

The objective of the research project is to combine the measurement campaigns on the three FINO platforms as well as to develop standardised analyses of the FINO wind measurement data. Overall responsibility for the three-year research project lies with DWD, which coordinates several research partners in this project.

 “The results of the ‘FINO Wind’ project will make a decisive contribution to obtaining a cohesive overview of the wind conditions in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Furthermore, the project will ensure that measurement, testing and homogenisation standards are developed that ensure comparability under offshore conditions independent of the individual circumstances. For instance, these may be caused by the varying measurement heights or the instrumentation and mast effect. That is the only way to provide a standardised and universal database to industry and research,” explains Peter Frohböse, Head of Department GL Garrad Hassan Offshore Hamburg.

Measuring masts are installed on the research platforms that measure the most important meteorological parameters at different heights, especially the wind speed and direction as well as wind qualities. The measurement results acquired that way are relevant to interdisciplinary tasks such as the design of offshore wind farms as well as to energy transport forecasts and hence the related economic efficiency calculation of offshore projects.

“Through ‘FINO Wind’, better comparability of the data from the three platforms is to be ensured and consistent storage of the measurement results in the FINO database enabled in order to make the results accessible to third parties. On the other hand, the results of the wind speed measurements are to be compared with regard to the wind climates of the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Then the results can be used to derive recommendations to adapt the measurement-related setup and to derive analysis methods, among other things,” explains Gudrun Rosenhagen, Manager of the Hamburg office of DWD.

In order to obtain sound knowledge of the offshore conditions, funds were provided in 2002 to construct such research platforms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The GL Group was involved right from the start in the FINO 1 research project in the North Sea approximately 40 km to the north of Borkum, and was responsible for operating the facility up until 2012. In addition, GL Garrad Hassan has managed the FINO 2 platform since 2009 as the official operator. It is located in the Baltic Sea, approximately 40 km north of Rügen.

Platform FINO 3, which was put into operation in mid-2009 in the North Sea approximately 70 km to the west of Sylt, is equipped with wind and meteorological measuring systems from GL Garrad Hassan. Besides responsibility for the design and set-up of the measuring system, GL Garrad Hassan is also responsible for smooth operation of the wind measurements on the 106 m mast for the entire term of the project. The meteorological studies on the platform as well as on its measuring mast are being conducted against the background of the offshore wind farm in the region to the west of Sylt, which has been approved and is currently under construction. The measurement data is being collected in accordance with the existing measurements on FINO 2 in the Baltic Sea, as well as on FINO 1 to the north of Borkum, and passed on to BSH for public distribution.

[mappress]

Press release, August 28, 2013; Image: gl