Validation of the first LiDAR wind resource assessment buoy system offshore the Northeast United States

Journal Article · Mon Jul 22 04:00:00 EDT 2019 · Wind Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/we.2387· OSTI ID:1843389

Viselli, Anthony ^[1]; Filippelli, Matthew ^[2]; Pettigrew, Neal ^[3]; Dagher, Habib ^[3]; Faessler, Nathan ^[3]

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1. Univ. of Maine, Orono, ME (United States); University of Maine, Advanced Structures and Composites Center
2. UL‐AWS Truepower, Albany, NY (United States)
3. Univ. of Maine, Orono, ME (United States)

The US offshore wind industry is maturing with several projects in various stages of development. These projects require site wind and environmental data before and during operation. Conventional techniques such as fixed-bottom meteorological towers present economical and permitting challenges for the US. Floating Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) buoys offer significant advantages including reduced costs, less permitting, and reusability. This paper presents the validation of the first floating LiDAR buoy in Northeast US waters. The buoy, named DeepCLiDAR, includes a LiDAR, ecological monitoring sensors, and metocean sensors. A three-phase LiDAR validation plan was executed, and its results are presented. The objective of the validation plan was to verify the accuracy of measurements made by the LiDAR buoy in wave environments against an unmoving reference wind measurement. Due to a lack of reference met masts, the use of a LiDAR on land as a baseline reference was implemented for validation. Comparison to a reference LiDAR instead of a traditional meteorological tower was a unique approach required in the Northeast US waters due to the absence of a reference fixed-bottom meteorological tower in the region at the time of this study. The testing included a comparison of wind speed measurements made by the buoy deployed 15 km offshore from the mainland and a land-based reference LiDAR located on a nearby island. This paper presents the methodology and results of this program, which indicate favorable agreement. This was the first such validation program in the Northeast USA which is now seeing rapid development of offshore wind.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Maine, Orono, ME (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Grant/Contract Number: EE0006713
• OSTI ID: 1843389
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1799157
• Journal Information: Wind Energy, Journal Name: Wind Energy Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 22; ISSN 1095-4244
• Publisher: Wiley
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
LiDAR
floating
offsore wind
validation