• RES Group’s WINDCUBE® v2 Campaign in Harsh Environment

• Long Range and Scanning LIDARs for Wind Energy

• Wind forecasting improvement using LIDARs by AWS Truepower

• Employee Introduction

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No5 February

2013

RES WINDCUBE® deployed at Dunmaglass - Scotland (Photo courtesy of RES)

Dunmaglass Wind Farm is a 99MW capacity wind energy project developed by RES Group in the Scottish Highlands. The site is located a few miles east of Loch Ness on a very exposed set of hills sitting at an average altitude of 700m. It offers some of the harshest climatic conditions in the UK and excellent wind energy potential.

Following consent for the project, RES Group’s Technical and Instrumentation departments ran a very challenging due diligence measurement campaign on the site. In response to the site’s extreme conditions, the campaign strategy involved a combination of tall meteorological masts and LIDAR measurements.

RES Group’s Instrumentation department manages and supports all of the company’s onshore and offshore measurement operations in Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. The department currently manages and operates four WINDCUBE® LIDARs.

RES deployed one of its WINDCUBE®v2 LIDAR systems at Dunmaglass from August 2011 until August 2012, covering three different measurement positions. The LIDAR was supported by an in-house auxiliary monitoring system and powered by an autonomous, modular hybrid power supply unit designed by RES engineers. The support structure was designed to survive and adapt to extreme conditions while being easy to relocate around the Highland moors. The concept was revised completely from the system used in Scandinavian sites, where the primary issue is accumulation and drifting of snow. The strong Scottish winds were used as an ally to keep the window of the WINDCUBE® clear.

Scotland faced two very powerful storms during the winter of 2011-12. Dunmaglass saw 3 second gusts reaching 45m.s-1 and temperatures dropping down to -7°C. Despite the challenging conditions, the measurement campaign was successful and achieved excellent data coverage and results.

WINDCUBE

WATCHUser experience:

Long Range and Scanning L IDARs for Wind Energy

Guest author: Loïs Legendre, Senior Instrumentation Engineer, RES Group

In addition to the compact and portable WINDCUBE®v2 LIDAR, three “long range” WINDCUBE® models offer measurement ranges of up to 500m (WINDCUBE®8), 1500m (WINDCUBE®70) and 6000m (WINDCUBE®200) above ground level respectively. These LIDARs have historically been used primarily in weather, climate and wind forecasting applications.To complement its catalogue of long-range vertical profilers, LEOSPHERE introduced a lineup of scanning LIDARs in 2010.

The scanning LIDAR product line responded to the need for improved wind shear and wake vortex detection at airports across the world. With experience gained in the airport market, Leosphere and NRG Systems collectively introduced scanning LIDARs to the wind energy market in 2011.

The current product line consists of three different models, each with different maximum range: 5500m (WINDCUBE®100S), 8500m (WINDCUBE®200S), and 10,000m (WINDCUBE®400S) respectively. The core technology of these LIDARs is similar to that of the well-known WINDCUBE®v2, while the addition of a scanning head and dedicated software allows for measurements both vertically and horizontally across a site.

RES Group’s WINDCUBE® v2 Campaign in Harsh Environment

SHORT RANGE VERTICAL LIDARS LONG RANGE VERTICAL LIDARS LONG RANGE 3D SCANNING LIDARS

WINDCUBE® FAMILY

There are a number of applications for long range and scanning LIDARs within the wind energy industry, including site assessment, turbine wake studies and short term forecasting. In site assessment applications, a scanning WINDCUBE® can be used to complement met masts and vertically-profiling remote sensors in reducing horizontal extrapolation uncertainty within the project area. Scanning WINDCUBE® LIDARs can also capture the temporal and spatial propagations of turbine wakes, making them ideal tools for validation and refinement of wake models. Several wake studies utilizing these LIDARs are currently in process, including one led by Professor Lundquist at the University of Colorado. As WINDCUBE® scanning LIDARs also offer long-range vertical profiling in addition to scanning techniques, they can be used to improve short term forecasting, by measuring wind speeds in both the upper reaches of the planetary boundary layer and well out ahead of a wind farm (please see the article in this issue regarding AWS TRUEPOWER for more details).

With their collective market experience and culture of innovation, LEOSPHERE and NRG Systems now offer a complete family of WINDCUBE® LIDARs to serve the wind energy industry.

DID YOU KNOW ?

Oldbaum Services, selected for the Offshore Wind Accelerator Wakes Measurement Campaign

in UK, has chosen LIDAR instrumentation from LEOSPHERE

(2 Scanning WINDCUBE®) and Avent Lidar Technology

(4 Wind Iris).

Employee Introduction

Jean-Marc THEVENOUDProduct Supervisor

LEOSPHERE

WINDCUBE

WATCH

Why did you choose to work at LEOSPHERE?I wanted to work in a technical environment linked to sustainable energy. I was also very interested in working in a fast growing SME turned toward innovation and international activitites. LEOSPHERE answered all those criteria and I have not been disappointed since then.

What do you like in your job?My job is very interesting as I have to listen to the market and make sure that our products are in line with the needs in terms of technical specifications, performances, design, software… This can be achieved only if I’m close to our customers. I enjoy spending time in the market to understand the problems and find innovative solutions. I also like to work with the different departments of the company to make the product releases a success.

What are your main challenges?Due to their high potential, LIDARs are being used for an increasing number of applications from site assessment, site suitability, power curve measurement to forecasting and we have to make sure that our products are answering the customer’s needs in all these areas. It requires a solid understanding of the current and the future markets. To follow the field diversity and customer profiles within the wind industry is both exciting and challenging.

How do you see the future for lidar technology in the wind industry?The future for lidar technology is bright. Especially with the increase of turbine size, the complexity of the site, and the growth of the offshore market there is a need for accurate and high availability wind data. The Doppler lidars are the solution of choice for such requirements and our fast growing installed base is confirming the market interest for the WINDCUBE®.

AWS Truepower (AWST), a leading renewable energy consultancy firm, is overseeing multiple wind energy research efforts which combine numerical prediction models and remote sensors to advance state-of-the-art wind power forecasting techniques. Two of these research programs incorporate the use of WINDCUBE® LIDARs.

The first program, the Wind Forecasting Improvement Project (WFIP) is a multi-year U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sponsored study whose main purpose is to demonstrate the scientific and economic benefits of additional atmospheric observations and model enhancements on wind energy production forecasts. WFIP employs additional measurement tools including remote sensing instrumentation such as Lidars to help improve forecast model performance. The choice of using LIDAR vertical profilers is driven by their unique capability to accurately measure the wind speed and the wind direction at multiple levels through and above the rotor plane. In the southern study region of WFIP, two WINDCUBEs were deployed immediately upstream and downstream of a wind farm to detect Low Level Jets (LLJs) which typically occur at altitudes between 100 and 500 meters. LLJs can cause large ramp events (changes in power production over short time spans) at wind farms; accurate forecasts of these phenomena are therefore crucial for utility and grid system operators.

The data collected by the WINDCUBE® are currently being used to quantify improvements in AWST forecasting model accuracy, and to examine the development, maintenance, and decay of LLJs.

The second program, the Solar and Wind Integrated Forecasting Technology (SWIFT), is sponsored by the Hawaiian Electric Companies and aims to improve operational forecasting for both wind and solar facilities in the Hawaiian islands. SWIFT efforts continue the WindNET initiatives to improve short-term wind ramp event forecasting under US DOE ARRA funding. SWIFT incorporates state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction techniques combined with deployment of a network of remote sensing instruments to create an operational forecasting system for wind and solar customized for Hawaii’s complex terrain, climate and utility operating environment. A scanning LIDAR, the WINDCUBE® 100S, has been field sited and will be deployed in early 2013 as part of the remote sensing network to provide upstream atmospheric information to improve short-term and ramp event forecasting capability.

Jeff Freedman, Lead Research Scientist at AWST, states that “the WFIP and SWIFT work performed by AWST, in collaboration with the U.S. DOE, NOAA, and Hawaiian Electric Companies, and other partners such as LEOSPHERE and NRG Systems, demonstrates the unique value of remote sensing instrumentation, including LIDAR, in improving wind power forecasting.”

Wind forecasting improvement using LIDARs by AWS Truepower Guest author: Loïs Legendre, Senior Instrumentation Engineer, RES Group

RES Group’s WINDCUBE® v2 Campaign in Harsh Environment

www.leosphere.com

LIDAR WATCH

Reach usWINDCUBE DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

EUROPELeosphere France Headquarters76 rue Monceau - 75008 Parissales@leosphere.com

AMERICASNRG SYSTEMS, Inc.110 Riggs Road, Hinesburg, VT 05461 USAinfo@nrgsystems.com

ASIA / AFRICAFor contactingour representatives in Asia: info@lidarwindtechnologies.com

OCEANIANRG Systems, Inc110 Riggs Road, Hinesburg, VT 05461 USAinfo@nrgsystems.com

Meet us

EWEA 2013 Vienna, Austria 04 - 07 February 2013

Wind Resource Assessment ForumLondon, UK19 - 20 March 2013

AWEA WINDPOWER 2013 Chicago, USA5 - 8 May 2013

OFFSHORE WIND CHINAShanghai, CHINA19 - 20 June 2013

EWEA Resource Assessment Seminar Dublin, Ireland25 - 26 June 2013

www.lidarwindtechnologies.com

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