UK: Carbon Trust Publishes Roadmap for Commercial Acceptance of Floating LIDAR

The Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator has published a roadmap for commercial acceptance of floating LIDAR technology.

As part of the Offshore Wind Accelerator programme, The Carbon Trust, along with a consortium of industrial partners, are investigating the potential of floating LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology in the context of wind resource assessment for the offshore wind industry.

Floating LIDAR technology has the potential to replace meteorological met masts for the measurement of primary wind resource data – wind speed and wind direction for a fraction of the cost.

The purpose of the document is to present a roadmap for floating LIDARs to become commercially accepted as a source of data to support financial investment decisions. The document describes three stages of commercialisation in terms of accuracy and availability KPIs. It also explains how measurement uncertainties decrease as a floating LIDAR device moves from Stage 1 (baseline) through to Stage 2 (pre-commercial) and finally Stage 3 (commercial).

In order to support floating LIDAR suppliers to achieve this, the OWA will facilitate trials of floating LIDAR systems compared to meteorological masts within their portfolio of projects.

The report, prepared in close collaboration with GL Garrad Hassan DNV KEMA, Mott MacDonald, ECN and Frazer Nash Consultancy, is available for download here.

Press release, November 25, 2013; Image: flidar