An eight month test campaign of the Qinetiq ZephIR system: Preliminary results

Abstract

The Beatrice Windfarm Demonstrator project is a major part of the European Union sponsored DOWNVInD programme (Distant Offshore Wind farms with No Visual Impact iN Demonstrator) that will install two multi megawatt wind turbines (of type REpower 5M) in the Moray Firth Scotland, adjacent to the Beatrice Alpha oil platform, owned and operated by Talisman Energy. As part of the project, a programme has been designed and instigated over the last eight months to thoroughly examine the performance and capabilities of the QinetiQ ZephIR LiDAR system as well as to establish its suitability for being the primary wind data acquisition instrument on the Beatrice project. This paper represents a first look at the results of this programme.