Publication date: October 2016

Floating LiDAR systems (FLS) have emerged as wind resource assessment tools for offshore wind farms, with the potential for greatly reduced installation costs compared to fixed met masts in some cases. The challenges that FLS face and have to overcome to be considered as effective wind measurement options can broadly be grouped in two categories:

• The movement of the sea imparting motion on the LiDAR, and the subsequent challenge of maintaining wind speed and direction accuracy;
• The remoteness of the deployed system necessitating robust, autonomous and reliable operation of measurement, power supply, data logging and communication systems.

There is no standard that describes how a FLS should be deployed to get the best quality data for a wind resource assessment. A recommended practice document is therefore required to guide the use of FLS as a data source in wind resource assessments that lead to predictions of annual energy production. This document directly uses and builds upon a previously issued collection of recommended practices, which was issued by IEA Wind[1], and should be considered as a further development of recommended practice with greater detail provided in many areas.

The goal of this document is to codify existing industry and academic best practices to help ensure that the best quality FLS data are made available for use in the wind energy resource assessment process.

This document has been developed by a group of FLS expert practitioners and reviewed by experienced industry stakeholders.

Discover more about our Two-Stage Floating LiDAR Validation Methodology and Worked Example