ZX 300: the most validated wind Lidar in the world

The largest body of evidence of any Remote Sensing Device, comparing the device’s performance to an IEC met mast, has been released by ZX Lidars. The evidence summarises 500 individual ZX 300 ground-based vertically-profiling wind Lidar unit Performance Verifications undertaken at the UK Remote Sensing Test Site against an IEC compliant met mast. Based on a sample of Lidar deployments between 2017 and 2021, horizontal wind speeds, directions and turbulence intensity comparisons against the installed cup anemometry where conducted.

ZX 300 uniquely measures these wind characteristics from just 10 metres and up to 300 metres above ground level. These wind measurements are the cornerstone of wind farm development onshore and offshore, globally.

The results show that ‘out-of-the-box’, a ZX Lidar’s performance demonstrates very high availability across all heights measured (Figure 1), very high accuracy when compared to an IEC compliant met mast (Figure 2) and a robust, consistent measure of Turbulence Intensity (Figure 3).

Figure 1: Summary of data availability with height across 500 ZX 300 wind Lidar deployments

Figure 2: Summary of wind speed correlations of 500 ZX 300 wind Lidars with an IEC compliant met mast

Figure 3: Summary of turbulence intensity correlations of 500 ZX 300 wind Lidars win an IEC compliant met mast

This vast sample of validations - the largest proof book of its kind - clearly demonstrate the reliability and repeatability of ZX Lidars’ standard Lidar calibration and quality control process. It can be stated that the generated Key Performance Indicator values are also well within the industry best practice criteria.

A further validation – the highest height Lidar / mast validation believed to be on record – was released in 2021 from the 213-metre research meteorological mast at the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR), Netherlands. Covering a 2-year campaign, comparative accuracy between a ZX 300 Lidar and the met mast was demonstrated to be 0.99 to 1.00, and an R² greater than 0.995 was achieved. System uptime of 99.4 % and QC’d data availability of 96.8 % - 98.4 % was also demonstrated.

ZX 300 is believed to be the world’s most validated ground-based Lidar. ZX Lidars have been deployed more than 10,000 times in over 90 countries globally. Offshore, ZX 300M – the Marine variant of the ZX 300 product – is responsible for more than 90% of all new offshore wind development projects’ wind measurement needs.