Testing and validation of multi‐lidar scanning strategies for wind energy applications

Journal Article · Wed Mar 16 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Wind Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/we.1978· OSTI ID:1400957

Newman, Jennifer F. ^[1]; Bonin, Timothy A. ^[2]; Klein, Petra M. ^[3]; Wharton, Sonia ^[4]; Newsom, Rob K. ^[5]

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1. School of Meteorology University of Oklahoma Norman Oklahoma USA, Current affiliation: National Wind Technology Center National Renewable Energy Laboratory Golden Colorado USA
2. School of Meteorology University of Oklahoma Norman Oklahoma USA, Current affiliation: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences University of Colorado, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Earth System Research Laboratory Boulder Colorado USA
3. School of Meteorology University of Oklahoma Norman Oklahoma USA
4. Atmospheric, Earth and Energy Division Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore California USA
5. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Richland Washington USA

Abstract Several factors cause lidars to measure different values of turbulence than an anemometer on a tower, including volume averaging, instrument noise and the use of a scanning circle to estimate the wind field. One way to avoid the use of a scanning circle is to deploy multiple scanning lidars and point them toward the same volume in space to collect velocity measurements and extract high‐resolution turbulence information. This paper explores the use of two multi‐lidar scanning strategies, the tri‐Doppler technique and the virtual tower technique, for measuring 3‐D turbulence. In summer 2013, a vertically profiling Leosphere WindCube lidar and three Halo Photonics Streamline lidars were operated at the Southern Great Plains Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site to test these multi‐lidar scanning strategies. During the first half of the field campaign, all three scanning lidars were pointed at approximately the same point in space and a tri‐Doppler analysis was completed to calculate the three‐dimensional wind vector every second. Next, all three scanning lidars were used to build a ‘virtual tower’ above the WindCube lidar. Results indicate that the tri‐Doppler technique measures higher values of horizontal turbulence than the WindCube lidar under stable atmospheric conditions, reduces variance contamination under unstable conditions and can measure high‐resolution profiles of mean wind speed and direction. The virtual tower technique provides adequate turbulence information under stable conditions but cannot capture the full temporal variability of turbulence experienced under unstable conditions because of the time needed to readjust the scans. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1400957
• Journal Information: Wind Energy, Journal Name: Wind Energy Vol. 19 Journal Issue: 12; ISSN 1095-4244
• Publisher: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English