AXYS Leads the Way for Floating LiDAR

AXYS Technologies Inc. announced it has completed another two validation campaigns for its FLiDAR 6M wind assessment platform, marking the ninth and 10th independently reviewed offshore validations undertaken by AXYS to advance the commercial acceptance of its FLiDAR technology for offshore wind resource assessment in support of project financing.

The latest validation campaigns took place at FINO 1 in the North Sea and at West of Duddon Sands in the Irish Sea, adding 11 more months of validation data to AXYS’ already impressive body of evidence for commercial acceptance. Both validation campaigns achieved over 98 percent data availability through harsh winter storm conditions while meeting or exceeding the accuracy standards established by the Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) Roadmap. 

“DNV GL has carried out numerous independent validations of AXYS’ FLiDAR systems over the past three years, comparing over 20 months of FLiDAR Wind Assessment data against offshore met mast data from FINO1, NAREC and West of Duddon Sands," said Detlef Stein, Global Head of Practice for Resource Measurements at DNV GL. “AXYS’ FLiDAR systems have consistently provided high data availability and accuracy under a wide range of harsh environmental conditions.”

Andy Oldroyd, Managing Director of Oldbaum Services commented, “In our experience, AXYS’ FLiDAR systems have proven to be highly durable and reliable with data accuracy and availability consistently meeting and often exceeding the stringent OWA Roadmap KPIs.”

Since the initial deployment of its flagship FLiDAR system in 2009, AXYS’ FLiDARs have successfully completed 17 offshore wind assessment campaigns and now 10 offshore met mast validations covering a range of operational, site and met ocean conditions in Europe, North America and Asia. This represents a total of nearly 12 years at sea.

“AXYS produced the first FLiDAR system in 2009 by equipping our proven 6M met ocean NOMAD hull with a LiDAR,” said Terry Tarle, AXYS President & CEO. “AXYS has supported the operation and maintenance of a fleet of 6M MetOcean NOMAD buoys in extreme weather and sea state conditions off the coast of Canada for over 30 years, so it is no surprise to us that our FLiDAR system has proven to be so reliable for conducting wind measurement campaigns in the harshest of offshore conditions.”

AXYS now operates a lease pool of eight FLiDARs worldwide with two backup systems available on short notice. AXYS FLiDAR systems have been designed and hardened over the past seven years to increase survivability and maintain high levels of accuracy and data availability in extreme weather and sea states. Features such as dual-LiDAR, triple-redundant power supply and communications, and redundant data storage were all designed to continually improve system reliability and to ensure the success of projects.

Watch a video of the FLiDAR buoy effortlessly navigating the rough seas off the coast of Germany from the campaign completed at the FINO 1 met mast as part of the NORCOWE consortium. With wave heights exceeding 8 meters and wind gusts over 38 knots (20m/sec), the ruggedized FLiDAR equipped with two LiDARs performed flawlessly, maintaining over 98 percent data availability through yet another winter storm in the North Sea.