Wind Measurements

Investment decisions involving wind farm sites heavily depend on uncertainties associated with the wind resource and energy assessments. Measurement campaigns should be smart – specifically optimised to minimise uncertainties, and then carefully monitored. Wind Pioneers’ measurement campaign optimisation software and ongoing measurement management can help sling shot a site through financial close.

► What We offer

• WindCheck – Engineer-led Wind Data Management
• Wind Data As A Service
• Long-term, hub-height wind analyses
• Measurement Campaign Optimisation – P90 maximisation
• Commissioning Support

► WindCheck – Engineer-led Wind Data Management

WindCheck is an online portal that lets you see an overview of your fleet, securely download your data, check your reports & play around with our interactive graphs. Our Engineer led Wind data management process, allows our team of engineers to check data weekly & email a prioritized list of maintenance to act on.

► Wind Data As A Service

► Long-Term Analysis of Site Data

Wind Pioneers correlates ground-measured wind data and MERRA2, ERA and other reanalysis data sets for the purposes of adjusting the measured site period to the long-term period using the lowest uncertainty approach. Wind Pioneers synthesises site data to extend the period of data at site masts using data from the same mast, other site masts and reanalysis data in that order of preference. Individual reanalysis nodes and combinations of regional nodes on a number of time-averaged periods are also investigated to find the highest correlation qualities.

Industry standard is only to look at very few different approaches, however Wind Pioneers has developed a highly automated approach to expand this to several hundred. This is powerful because the nature of the reanalysis data sets is that different methods can result in very different estimated long-term wind speeds. Our approach gives us a distribution of final wind speeds, from which our customers can look at the mean and spread and get a Consensus feeling of what the long-term wind speed is at the mast.

► Shear Analysis

Wind Pioneers investigates a range of approaches to produce an estimate of the shear profile at measurement locations. Where shear is strongly seasonal and diurnal, Wind Pioneers looks at temporal trends in the vertical wind speed profile in order to provide estimates of wind speeds at relevant heights. Adjustments and corrections, are applied as deemed appropriate to adjust for mast effects and measurement artefacts.

► Optimising Measurements to Minimise Uncertainties

Wind Pioneers measurement campaign software models the likely uncertainties in a future energy assessment to help design a measurement campaign that will produce the most certain wind resource assessment. A number of scenarios representing different investment levels can be provided so options can be evaluated. Costs estimates will be included to enable an investment decision to be made on an uncertainty-benefit-to-cost basis.

If a client has multiple sites, consideration can be given for optimising the measurement campaigns across these sites. For instance, by using a Lidar device employed for fixed time periods at each site.

During a measurement campaign Wind Pioneers provides regular measurement checks and updated wind resource assessments to give up-to-date information on the state of the campaign.

Measurements: Masts, Remote Sensing or Both?

With the accuracy of remote sensing devices improving all the time, and with hub heights getting ever taller there has never been a stronger case for the value remote sensing devices can add to a site measurement campaign.

Every site, and every development situation is different. Wind Pioneers can help support developers in making the right investment decisions and ensuring that equipment is utilised to its maximum.

Measurements from traditional meteorological masts can frequently be leveraged by supplementing them using remote sensing devices. While the portability of LiDAR and SoDAR devices adds value in being able to rotate measurements around a site, with flexibility comes complexity and careful consideration of seasonality and correlation periods need to be accounted for in designing and executing a measurement campaign.