Natural Power, a renewable energy consultancy group, says it has demonstrated matched performance of its continuous wave wind light detection and ranging (LIDAR) ZephIR to a calibrated wind tunnel at a project involving the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (DNATF), Riso DTU, LM Wind Power and NKT Photonics.
The ZephIR 300 was deployed in LM Windpower's wind tunnel in Denmark and successfully measured wind speeds from 5 meters per second (m/s) to 75 m/s, with an average difference of 0.4% for a sustained period of time and across all measured speeds, according to Natural Power.
These test results feed into a DNATF project called Integration of Wind LIDAR's in Wind Turbines for Improved Productivity and Control. The results also demonstrate the performance of Natural Power's ControlZephIR, which is based on a ZephIR but with different system software and mechanical housing to allow the unit to be either spinner or nacelle mounted.
ControlZephIR provides wind turbine control systems with the necessary data from a number of distances in front of the turbine. This data allows the turbine to steer into the wind to maximize performance, according to Natural Power.
