An energy services company has mounted a laser-based wind sensor on a wind farm in the UK. The wind profiling lidar, Natural Power’s ZephlR, is part of a meteorological forecasting system undergoing a six-month trial. The lidar will feed live speed and direction data to meteorological organizations to increase the efficiency of power-forecasting tools, correlate weather patterns, and keep maintenance teams working across the wind farm safe.

Robin Rigg offshore wind farm, on the coast of North Cumbria, UK has a total site capacity of 180 MW, 60 Vestas 3 MW turbine.

The lidar can take 50 data points of wind speed every second and at five user-defined heights. It is deployed 12 km out to sea at Robin Rigg, on one of its 132-kV substation structures. Natural Power and energy service firm E.ON, based in Louisville, Kentucky, have tested a communications interface for the lider, which will let a data server collect live data transmitted by the device.

Natural Power

naturalpower.com