French floating wind energy technology developer, Eolfi, has retrieved the LIDAR1 buoy developed as part of the BLIDAR project from its mooring in the Mediterranean.
The company has been working on the project in collaboration with NKE Instrumentation and two French research institutes, Ifremer and IRSEEM, with BLIDAR being the first of a new series of buoys developed by Eolfi and its partners, the company stated.
The system uses laser technology to measure wind speeds at heights of up to 200 metres above potential floating wind farm sites that, at depths of over 50 metres, are beyond the reach of conventional metocean solutions such as met masts on a fixed foundation.
The buoy was deployed in the waters around the Ile du Planier, off Marseille, in May 2016 and has acquired a mass of data in just over a year. Eolfi said that, together with NKE Instrumentation, it was also able to assess the buoy’s performance and robustness over the period.
The results of the test campaign are now being analysed and will be certified by an independent body.
Eolfi’s ultimate goal is to bring this serially produced buoy to market, following a prototype maintenance phase and then a second measurement campaign using an offshore met mast as a reference device, in order to obtain Carbon Trust validation.
With the French government launching, as part of its overarching Climate Plan, a review of its multi-annual energy plan (PPE), in which floating wind power should play a major role, the retrieval of the BLIDAR buoy is a significant step forward. Analysis of the data from the buoy should add considerably to our knowledge of wind conditions out at sea, knowledge that is vital to the deployment of wind farms in the Mediterranean (first pilot and then commercial farms). – Eolfi stated in a press release.
The BLIDAR project receives financial backing from BPI France, the Single Inter-Ministry Fund (FUI), the Regional Councils of Brittany and Upper Normandy, the General Council of Morbihan and the Lorient metropolitan area.