Face to Face with the Wind

At an altitude of 140 meters above ground, engineers of the German wind energy consultancy BBB Umwelttechnik GmbH – Part of Ramboll (BBB) have installed their new ZephIR DM laser measurement device for the first time. Mounted on a turbine’s nacelle at Bad Hersfeld wind farm, its laser beams were directed horizontally into the wind. During the measurement campaign, which is now completed, wind data were collected that enable the identification of potentials for performance optimisation.

With the new measurement device BBB significantly widens its product range in the field of LiDAR technology. After five years of practice in ground-based LiDAR measurements for the purpose of wind resource evaluation, the experts from BBB’s accredited testing laboratory are now also using the laser technology for performance analysis and optimisation.

„No other method is comparably suitable for the evaluation of a turbine‘s power curve and can at the same time provide information on potential yaw and pitch misalignments“, says Klaus Bergmann, the local department manager „and conclusions about the rotor-equivalent energy and relation to turbulence intensity can be drawn as well – which is of great value especially at complex sites and for wind farm composites.

On behalf of Stadtwerke Stuttgart (Stuttgart utility), the operator of Bad Hersfeld wind farm, BBB successfully identified measures for the optimised exploitation of wind resources at the particularly complex site. In the next assignment the ZephIR DM LiDAR device will be operated at a wind farm project in Sweden.