Public Funding for Wind Farm Analytics Ltd

This project seeks to explore the technical feasibility of incorporating remote laser wind measurement instrumentation within the interior body of wind turbine blades, including use of blade LIDAR windows conformal to the existing blade shape. This will pave the way for wind turbine integrated intersecting beam laser wind measurement - a technique that will enable incoming wind profiles to be measured with unprecedented detail - this is of great importance when it comes to optimising and protecting the massive wind energy generating assets that are being installed offshore and onshore around the UK, enabling the UK to reduce further its reliance on fossil fuels and offering export opportunities to a long term global growth market.

Wind LIDAR (LIght Detection and Ranging) is a technique that is used to remotely measure the wind speed and is being used throughout the wind industry from site prospecting to wind turbine control. Floating Wind LIDAR has been more recently introduced to replace expensive offshore meteorological masts, however multiple intersecting beams are required to give a true 3D wind direction and this cannot be done with today's floating Wind LIDAR designs. Existing floating LIDAR cannot adequately measure turbulence because of their diverging beams whereas the converging beam LIDAR offers this capability which is critical to appropriate wind turbine type selection. This project seeks to investigate the feasibility of constructing an advanced motion control that can enable multiple Wind LIDAR beams to be intersected even when operating in the open sea from floating platforms. This enhancement of details will lead to more accurate turbine performance assessment, optimisation and also offer the opportunity to investigate and monitor what are the actual wind profiles hitting these enormous offshore structures by offering volumetric 3d wind mapping.

This project seeks to take a new LIDAR system from construction of field demonstrator through to installation on wind farm and environmental test for marine ruggedisation. The programmable scanning LIDAR under development will bring a step change in LIDAR measurement capability and enable wind farm operators to really know the wind profile that is hitting their turbine, rather than being kept ignorant by unrepresentative hub height measurements. A number of innovative steps will be employed in order to improve accuracy and capability. This will enable the total farm output to be forecast from seconds to minutes ahead, thus enabling truly flexible grid resource planning. The system will also offer savings by reducing infrastructure failure rates. This will be achieved by augmenting condition monitoring systems with detailed mapping of the incident wind vector field. As an added bonus the system will highlight yaw misalignment. The system will assist wind turbine parameter tuning so that wind turbine may be set up like a race car for the relevant operating conditions.

This study will determine the feasibility of producing significant improvements in productivity and reliability, and as a consequence, reductions in LCoE and increased revenue, in OWE generation. Innovative nacelle mounted LIDAR techniques which deliver high value at low cost will be identified and developed. Technical solutions and innovation will be informed and enabled by rigorous analysis of newly acquired detailed wind in-flow data to determine the most effective measurements by which to make critical wind turbine control decisions to increase productivity, and reduce maintenance by enabling ride-through of otherwise damaging wind conditions. The project will produce innovation in LIDAR systems aimed at accelerating their adoption and greatly increasing their RoI. Key outputs will be a robust economic analysis, business case and technical route to implementation of a system level design.