Galion Lidar Delivers One Year of Bank-grade Wind Data from Asia's First Offshore Lidar Platform

Online, May 9, 2013 (Newswire.com) - International renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group, has concluded a one year wind measurement campaign, conducted on the first Offshore Risk Quantification Analysis (ORQA) platform, located near Lamma Island, Hong Kong.

The measurement campaign, which began in March 2012, was carried out on behalf of The Hongkong Electric Co., Ltd. (HK Electric), which is looking to develop a 90-100MW offshore wind power project.

SgurrEnergy's unique ORQA platform is an advanced offshore data monitoring platform which uses the company's Galion Lidar technology to capture accurate, bank-grade wind data. Applicable for all wind farm sites, it is designed specifically to capture a full meteorological, environmental, wave, tidal and foundation picture of offshore conditions.

ORQA is currently the only offshore wind monitoring platform in the world to use Lidar as a primary means of hub height wind speed measurement. The bank-grade wind data captured by Galion Lidar on ORQA during the 12-month campaign has provided essential information on annual energy production and wind farm layout optimisation.

The data, which has been independently verified by testing and certification specialists, DNV KEMA, has formed an essential part of a feasibility study submitted to the Hong Kong Government by HK Electric for offshore wind farm planning approval.

As well as fully installing the ORQA platform and providing all operation and maintenance services to achieve maximum data availability, SgurrEnergy has remotely controlled all data management for the project from its head office in Glasgow, Scotland. The company's expert measurement engineers and wind analysts carried out data recovery, data back-up, regular reporting and independent verification of measured wind data throughout the campaign duration.

C. K. Lau, general manager (projects) of HK Electric, said, "We are delighted to have our 12-month wind monitoring campaign completed on schedule with data certified by DNV KEMA. SgurrEnergy has demonstrated their professionalism and technical competency throughout the campaign. The application of Galion Lidar saves the requirement of constructing a full hub height met mast, hence substantially reduces the overall design requirements of the offshore platform, leading to a drastic reduction in the foundation cost. The foundation design represents a saving of roughly 25% of steel tonnage compared with a foundation designed to support conventional met mast using cup anemometry."

Owen Murphy, ORQA O&M project manager, said, "SgurrEnergy is delighted to have assisted the client in reaching this key stage of their project. Accurate and dependable measured site data is invaluable for developers of offshore wind projects, and this campaign has proven that Galion Lidar is capable of playing an integral role in the acquisition of high quality data in a challenging offshore environment. The project highlights that remote sensing can be used not only to greatly reduce the cost of offshore measurement, but also to reduce uncertainty by measuring right up to WTG tip height"

The ORQA project represents the latest of a number of recent key achievements for SgurrEnergy's Galion Lidar, which include its use in a pioneering offshore measurement campaign with AREVA Wind at Alpha Ventus, and its deployment by Indiana University and University of Strathclyde for novel wind monitoring research.