Air flow radar
A new radar system has been installed to help build up a picture of the complex flow patterns of wind through an offshore wind farm. DONG Energy and SmartWind Technologies have announced that the world’s first radar for offshore wind power is now delivering three-dimensional data on the wind flow in the Westernmost Rough Offshore Wind Farm region.
This is a “first of its kind” project, and according to DONG Energy, it represents a paradigm shift in wind measurements. The advanced radar system, named BEACon (beamed radar for energy assessment and site conditions), provides 3D data of the way in which the wind flows around the 210 MW Westernmost Rough Offshore Wind Farm, measuring the wind conditions up to 35 km out from the coast.
The BEACon radar emits radio waves in a narrow beam, which is scanned across the wind farm area. As the radio waves are scattered by particles carried by the wind, their frequencies are slightly shifted by the Doppler Effect. This allows the wind speed and the wind direction to be determined. One single radar cannot distinguish between the wind speed and the wind direction so two radars separated by several kilometres are required to get the full picture.
The BEACon program now installed to cover the Westernmost Rough is expected to be operational for 18 months, at which point the radars will be moved to another location. According to DONG Energy, BEACon has already documented the way in which wind turbines shadow one another, and how these wakes develop behind the wind power plant. Specifically, these results provide new insights into the complexities of wind flow through and around an offshore wind power plant.
“By knowing how the wind varies through the wind power plant, we can better predict the power output of the wind turbines and this is a huge step forward for wind insights,” explained Nicolai Gayle Nygaard, the BEACon Technical Manager at DONG Energy.” We are getting minute-by-minute 3D images of the wind flow through the wind power plant and this is a game changer for the industry. We are no longer limited to measuring the wind at just one point, now we can document the wind field across the entire wind power plant and coastal domain.”
“SmartWind Technologies has provided an advanced hardware and software solution to measure the complex flows at the Westernmost Rough wind farm and to reduce the generated complex data fields into a user-friendly format,” added John Schroeder, Co-Founder of SmartWind Technologies. “The acquired data will facilitate long-term studies and aid real-time decision-making and we expect this new capability to drive down the cost of wind energy.”
By Dag Pike
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