Wind Speed at Light Speed

Optimal siting of wind farms and positioning of turbines requires a thorough understanding of local wind flow and turbulence conditions. But these can be difficult to quantify and time-averaged measurements at a few selected locations may not be fully representative. Complex sites present particular difficulties, as cliffs, buildings and trees all serve to modify the wind flow. With turbine hub heights now reaching over 100m, conventional met-masts of 50m or so cannot always provide the confidence needed to predict future wind farm productivity. A new, ground-based, remote wind lidar (light detection ­and ­ranging) system has been developed to overcome the cost and deployability issues associated with conventional laser radar systems. It has been shown to operate reliably in remote locations, and in independent tests has demonstrated accuracy comparable to the best calibrated cup anemometers in use today.