Weather measurement expert ramps up production for its remote sensing system used by wind developers, operators and investors worldwide.
Vaisala, a global manufacturer of environmental and industrial measurement equipment, has doubled production capacity at its Boulder, Colorado, U.S. operations center for the Triton Wind Profiler. Vaisala has increased capacity to meet the needs of wind farm developers and operators for quick, reliable access to accurate hub-height wind measurement data.
Vaisala has doubled production capacity at its Boulder, Colorado, U.S. operations center for the Triton Wind Profiler.
The increase in demand for Triton comes from a growing wind industry that has widely adopted remote sensing systems for measuring wind speed, allowing faster development, better financing, and more efficient wind farm operations.
The remote sensing system’s versatility, ruggedness, mobility and ultra-lower power requirements make it a dependable choice for collecting wind resource measurements, especially as wind farm developers continue their push into more remote territories around the world, where the installation of met masts is often impractical.
Wind developers use Triton to measure wind speeds at prospective wind farm sites because the remote sensor offers accurate data at the heights of today’s taller turbines while helping them overcoming many hurdles. Triton’s mobility and online data recording allow developers to quickly collect the wind information needed to conduct assessments, and make decisions about viable sites – rather than waiting for met towers to be planned, permitted and constructed.
Wind farm operators are taking advantage of the same Triton features to help optimize their wind generation assets more cost-effectively. The Triton has many operational applications, such as indicative power performance testing, turbine wake studies, and verification of met masts. In all of these cases, Triton helps operators perform a more robust analysis generally at a much lower cost and time commitment.
“We are witnessing a global shift toward remote sensing away from traditional met masts,” said Pascal Storck, Head of Renewable Energy at Vaisala. “This is driven in part by new standards and acceptance for power performance testing, but primarily from the simple fact that remote sensing, especially SoDAR systems like Triton, offer a faster, more cost-effective means of reliably recording wind measurements for our industry’s ever-taller turbines.”
Storck added, “Vaisala has continuously been improving Triton manufacturing through the application of lean manufacturing principles. To meet increasing demand from our customers, we were able to quickly scale up our capacity. It helps considerably that Vaisala has been a leader in manufacturing high-quality weather measurement equipment for over 80 years.”
“With global wind capacity growing year on year, and allocations for farm development anticipated in even more remote and challenging locations in 2017, Triton will continue to offer its users the accurate wind resource data necessary to design better, more efficient wind farms.”
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