Why is Lidar important to the wind industry?
Wind Lidar is complementing — and in some areas replacing — the traditional met mast approach for wind resource assessment, but also for the operational phase in wind energy. They are faster to set up, easier to relocate, and they don’t need permitting. They’re covering higher altitude. With a WindCube 2.1 XP, now we can go up to 400 meters for wind measurement. We measure more height. In term of accuracy, the performance is now well accepted and well known by this industry. That’s why I think Lidar is important in wind energy.
In wind energy, we see a growing acceptance for the Lidar remote sensing device. The technology has been around for 20 years. It’s well represented inside international standards committees.
The geography in Europe, in the U.S. and in North America in general, and in Asia are very familiar with this kind of device. It’s helping the wind industry to be more agile during pre-wind resource assessment, but also the wind resource assessment in the operational phase.
It helps to mitigate and decrease financial risk and, in the end, improve the profitability of the project.
You do it faster; you do it at less cost, and you do it more accurately.
What is your role with Vaisala and your involvement with the development of WindCube 2.1 XP?
I have a mechanical engineering background. I have worked in different manufacturing R&D services for more than 15 years in different kinds of industry — always in energy, but more traditional energy — before joining Vaisala seven years ago. I’m based in France, and I have been the product manager on this wind cube product for two years.
I bring the voice of the customer and the market requirements to the development team. This means that, as we developed 2.1 XP, that we make sure we bring the evolution that the market and the customer was expecting.
What makes WindCube 2.1 XP a significant evolution in the development of wind Lidar?
WindCube 2.1 XP reflects years of customer feedback, rigorous testing, and continuous innovation. Fine-tuning the detector’s sensitivity, reducing power consumption, and refining measurement stability across environmental conditions helped us engineer WindCube 2.1 XP to deliver the performance developers need.
Two main points here about the development of WindCube 2.1 XP: One is the extension of the classification up to 200 meters, and the second one is the large improvement we have done on data availability in the most challenging environments with this new 2.1 XP.
We extended our classification. Traditionally the IEC classification was up to 130 to 140 meters due to the limitation of the met mast, for example in Europe or in Germany. With WindCube 2.1 XP, we really attempt to go farther. For developers who will use our Lidar now, they have a third-party classification that is covering from 60 meters to 200 meters, where before we covered 40 to 130 meters. With WindCube 2.1 XP, we are covering the full rotor diameter of a modern turbine.
How does WindCube 2.1 XP deliver the performance developers need?
What is important for developers is to make sure that their project will run smoothly from the beginning to the end to minimize any risk on it. That mean you need high data availability and high accuracy on your remote sensing device.
Now with WindCube 2.1 XP, we have a device that delivers everything without any compromise; you don’t need to compromise anything to have data availability. You will have the best data availability in the most challenging environment. This way you can reduce the risk of a delayed project for customers.
Also with improved accuracy, you make sure the wind you are measuring is the true wind of the wind park and that you don’t overestimate or underestimate your future annual energy production.
What kind of advancements of the WindCube directly translate into tangible value for the people who are going to be using it?
As mentioned, it’s complementing or replacing met mast in a way. You don’t need permitting. You can do it within half a day to deploy this kind of device. You will have a full profile of your wind from 40 meters to 400 meters. You can have ultimately a better, more profitable project that costs less, is more accurate, and gives you a better estimation of what will be the future of your wind farm here and the future production of your wind farm.
Let’s talk about the Vaisala Compass. What is it and how does it work with the Wind Cube 2.1?
Our WindCube product previously was delivered with our online platform, and that was called Insight Fleet. Compass is an evolution of that. With it, we bring an improved online platform to access to all the data monitoring of your device but also a new project module or new post-processing algorithm.
It’s bringing more value now to the market with its post-processing algorithm and project module to follow your different devices around the world, your different project from the initial site selection to actual operation. You can use Compass to address all your challenges during a renewable energy project.
And Compass is not only for WindCube 2.1 XP, but it can also be used for a solar platform.
What gives WindCube 2.1 XP an advantage over other Lidar?
Vaisala has been investing in developing Lidar technology for over 20 years. From the beginning, our vertical profiler Lidars have been used by research institutions requiring the highest accuracy.
Also, I’d like to mention that, at the company level, we invest 12 percent of our net sales into R&D and have almost one third of our people working in R&D. So, we are continuously developing our technology. Being heavily invested in innovating, we are committed to making the best Lidars for the industry.
From a technical perspective, WindCube 2.1 XP brings to the customer state-of-the-art pulse Lidar technology. This technology has a clear advantage compared to other Lidar technology, such as a constant probe volume, for its simultaneous measurement altitude accuracy. This device is designed to measure high altitude, necessary for the rotor diameter. As turbines are becoming bigger, we need more and more accurate measurements at higher altitude.
Along with WindCube 2.1 XP, Vaisala has a patented wind reconstruction algorithm that we call the Hybrid Reconstruction and a unique selectable reconstruction (FCR) for moderate complex terrain. From an operation perspective, we have a very wide service network, either with Vaisala or our exclusive service partners all around the world.
This gives the project a unique capability to be maintained directly on site by our field engineer or by service partner. There’s no need to send the device back to Europe or any factory to be repaired. It can be directly maintained in the country our customer is in.
Also, our Lidars are not exclusive to wind energy as we provide vertical profiler Lidars and scanning Lidars to other industries where wind measurement accuracy is essential. Such industries would be, for example, the airport industry, meteorology, and air quality.
What has been the industry response to WindCube 2.1 XP so far?
Now that we have launched the product, the initial feedback has been very positive.
Before the launch, we worked with some key customers for more than a year on the beta testing or pre-service phase. And the feedback our key customers gave after testing the device was really positive about the concrete improvements we have brought to this new Lidar. So overall, the reception has been very positive.
More info www.vaisala.com/en
