Public Funding for Heason Technology Limited

WinTIL will develop the technology for the first generation of LIDAR systems suitable for integration into wind turbines, in order to provide advance information about the incident wind field across the entire rotor area. This data can then be used by turbine control systems to minimise fatigue loads and to optimise energy extraction. Reductions in fatigue loads on turbines and components will enable optimised service intervals and extend service life for onshore and offshore turbines. More efficient, safer and more reliable energy generation will reduce costs and improve public perceptions of wind energy. It is currently impossible to use lidars in this way due to technology limitations and the need for systems to be cheaper, more reliable and compact. WinTIL will integrate continuous-wave (CW) lidar into the turbine and reduce system complexity through innovations such as automatic scanning, optimised optical transceivers and data processing algorithms. The WinTIL consortium has experience of incorporating current wind lidars into turbines for research purposes, and is ideally placed to move these concepts to a market-ready design.