DNV GL Validates Accurasea Floating LiDAR

DNV GL has completed an independent validation assessment of the Accurasea floating LiDAR offshore wind measurement device requested by EOLFI.

The Accurasea floating LiDAR has now formally reached the pre-commercial maturity stage (Stage 2) on the Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator Roadmap for the Commercial Acceptance of Floating LiDAR Technology .

This new system can therefore be used commercially for the assessment of the wind resource of offshore wind farm projects with consideration of the use cases outlined in the CT OWA Roadmap, which will help EOLFI to further develop its commercial activity.

The validation of the device took place at the offshore NAREC Offshore Anemometry Hub (NOAH) in the United Kingdom territorial waters from January 2019 to July 2019.

Two datasets have been tested for the Accurasea Floating LiDAR, one using the Windcube V2 own inertial unit, and a second one using an external Ekinox inertial unit. For both datasets, the floating LiDAR unit achieved an overall system availability of 100% and an overall post-processed data availability from 95.9% to 99,0% at the 52m, 6 m, 86m and 103m MSL configured heights, and recorded wind speed data with an accuracy in line with the best practice acceptance criteria defined in the CT OWA Roadmap, and wind direction data with an accuracy in line with the best acceptance criteria at a key locations (86 and 103m MSL).

At these heights, results showed that, according to IEC 61400- 12-1 Ed.2 standard, the verification uncertainty levels of the unit are comprised between 1.6% and 4.1% for wind speed bins from 4 m/s to 16 m/s.

Floating LiDAR technology uses buoy-mounted laser-anemometry to measure wind speeds, helping to determine the energy production of future offshore wind farms.