Leading renewable engineering consultancy, SgurrEnergy, in partnership with AREVA Wind, has announced the launch of a comprehensive offshore wind energy measurement campaign. The campaign, which the companies say is the largest of its kind, involves the deployment of three of SgurrEnergy’s G4000 Offshore Galion Lidar devices, a compact and advanced wind energy scanning Lidar, on an AREVA M5000-116 wind turbine located in the offshore test field, Alpha Ventus, in the German North Sea.

SgurrEnergy’s G4000 Offshore Galion Lidar deployed on an AREVA M5000-116 wind turbine.

AREVA Wind is a subsidiary of the French energy group AREVA. The company, who manufactures and commissions offshore wind turbines, elected to work with Glasgow-based SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group, on the project due to the capabilities of its Galion Lidar to conduct power performance assessments on offshore wind turbines. Using techniques pioneered by SgurrEnergy Lidar, a Galion installed on the transition piece or nacelle of a wind turbine can measure the free stream wind at hub height to several rotor diameters. This method provides a realistic alternative to an offshore met mast, which is often rejected as financially unviable.

The campaign will involve the simultaneous collection of wind data at multiple measurement points by three Galion devices, providing detailed information on the wind resource before and after it interacts with the investigated turbine. This data, along with that collected by the turbine itself, will produce a comprehensive picture, previously unattainable to the wind energy industry, the companies say, of inflowing wind and its influence throughout the structure of a turbine, from blades to foundations.

SgurrEnergy says it’s the first company in the industry to place three scanning Lidars on one wind turbine. The techniques facilitated by their Galions will allow for more extensive testing of offshore turbines. This use of identical scanning Lidars installed in all test locations, including the wind turbine nacelle, uniquely allows the adoption of a common measurement principle which will support the validation of the campaign results.

The project will take place over a period of three to six months and SgurrEnergy’s wind analysis team, based in Glasgow, will manage the measurement campaign remotely; controlling the Galions’ scan geometries, settings, and timings.

SgurrEnergy’s experienced engineers will also be involved in the deployment and commissioning of each Lidar at the test site in Germany. It’s expected that the data acquired by this offshore measurement campaign will be used to inform understanding of the conditions in which large and complex offshore turbines operate, thus contributing to impact assessments for potential offshore wind farms. The results of this study could contribute to the areas of power curve testing, wake modelling, rotor blade design, advanced condition monitoring and wind farm design.

 SgurrEnergy
www.sgurrenergy.com

AREVA Wind
www.areva.com