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.
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
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