DONG Energy's Burbo Bank Extension project gets green light using FLiDAR wind data

DONG Energy recently decided to construct the offshore wind farm, located 8 km off the United Kingdom coast in Liverpool Bay. It is the world’s first offshore wind project to be built using energy yield calculations based on wind resource data collected from a floating lidar (FLiDAR).

A FLiDAR buoy was the only device measuring the offshore wind resource on site from June 2013 to September 2014. It subsequently completed a final period of post validation against an offshore met mast, proving once again the very high accuracy of the system in any sea state.

Reinhardt Stevens, General Manager of FLiDAR said “The speed, flexibility, and relatively low cost of floating lidar technology is changing the way offshore wind is measured. We are proud to be working with DONG Energy at the forefront of that development.”

Burbo Bank Extension will consist of 32 MHI Vestas Offshore Wind V164-8.0MW wind turbines with a total capacity of 258MW and is expected to be commissioned in 2017.

The FLiDAR technology has been developed by 3E, global renewable energy consultancy and software provider, and Offshore & Wind Assistance (OWA), the subsidiary of marine contractor Geosea.

The FLiDAR equipment consists of an industry standard Mobilis buoy equipped with a state-of-the-art buoy-adapted LEOSPHERE WINDCUBE®v2 LiDAR held in a passive mechanical stabilisation system. It has previously been tested and validated against fixed met masts in the North Sea and in Irish Sea (as part of the UK’s Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator programme). The performance has been analysed and validated by third parties and has been proven to deliver wind data with accuracy equivalent to standard offshore wind measurements. FLiDAR has reached Stage 2 on the Carbon Trust roadmap as first floating LiDAR supplier.