A UK renewable energy development organization is creating an offshore wind farm in the North Sea. This will include up to 20 pre-consented “pods”, at which tenants may deploy their prototype or pre-commercial turbines and foundations. The developer, Narec, is a UK national center focused on development, demonstration, deployment, and grid integration of renewable energy and low carbon generation.
Natural Power’s ZephIR Service Engineer, Carl Barrow, is seen opposite commissioning the system with Jonathan Hughes of Narec.
As part of this project Narec has deployed a ZephIR lidar onshore close to the offshore location to provide a greater understanding of the wind characteristics across the site, building on existing wind assessment work. ZephIR wind data is the initial phase of a comprehensive wind measurement campaign that will eventually include offshore measurements from the demonstrator site.
Natural Power’s ZephIR lidar provides wind measurements from 10 m to 200 m above the installed device. The lower heights measured offer the opportunity to correlate with existing measurements while the higher ones will be of relevance to the next generation of offshore wind turbines, considering the heights that they could reach. Overall the lidar will offers a better understanding of the wind shear relevant to the turbine swept area.
“Potential demonstrators require wind resource and energy yield data as soon as possible so they can assess the suitability of the site for their next generation turbines,” says Nathalie Stevenson, offshore demonstrator project manager. “This deployment will be complimented by the deployment of a traditional anemometry mast and another lidar on the offshore platform, which will be installed late spring/early summer next year.”
Natural Power www.naturalpower.com
Narec www.narec.co.uk
Filed Under: Offshore wind
