First AXYS WindSentinel Deployed Off Portugal

AXYS Technologies Inc. has announced that the WindSentinel platform ordered by EDP Inovação (EDPi) under the European funded project, DemoWFloat, has been deployed off the coast of Portugal near Viana do Castelo.

The WindSentinel floating LiDAR platform was delivered ahead of schedule and EDPi will now use it to test and monitor the performance of their prototype floating wind turbine and contribute for the development of new methodologies for deep offshore resource assessment and also refine the wind estimate for this location.

Since deployment in late July, the WindSentinel platform has experienced winds exceeding 20m/s as well as 8m waves, and has operated with over 98% data availability.

The Demowfloat project is receiving funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 296050. It aims at demonstrating the Windfloat (floating Offshore wind turbine prototype) technology and gathers 13 entities of 6 different countries.

“We are very pleased to deploy the first European WindSentinel platform as part our EU sponsored Demowfloat initiative,” said Carlos Martin Rivals, Director of Floating Offshore Wind at EDP. “Our selection was based on the basis of AXYS’ experience and capacity to adapt to our rigorous wind measurement standards. The AXYS team has delivered the WindSentinel on time and we look forward to continuing the good collaboration achieved so far.” 

“We are delighted to have deployed the first European WindSentinel with EDPi,” said Terry Tarle, AXYS President & CEO. “AXYS remains committed to reducing the cost of offshore wind and will be running a campaign in accordance with the Carbon Trust roadmap to validate the performance of floating LiDAR within the next year.” 

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Press release, September 23, 2014; Image: AXYS