Context

The Gulf of Lion, an area with a high potential for the development of floating wind turbines, is the focus of the challenges of fine characterisation of the wind resource and precise knowledge of the environmental conditions. In this region, direct measurements are currently collected through a network of coastal anemometers. However, offshore data are needed to validate the numerical models used to characterise the resource and to design the systems. While the installation of anemometers on masts in deep waters is technically excluded, the use of remote sensing devices, such as lidar, is promising.

Objectives

• To overcome the lack of wind and turbulence data from in-situ measurements in the Gulf of Lion
• To propose specific recommendations for the design of offshore wind turbines in this region

Scientific and technical content

• Deployment of a WindCube v2 lidar operating at 4 Hz (acquisition frequency 4 x higher than a commercial lidar of the same type)
• Preliminary study of the lidar’s capacity to measure turbulence by comparison with a measuring mast equipped with anemometers
• Characterisation of turbulence in the Gulf of Lion by measuring the lidar deployed on Planier Island
• Test of the lidar on board a mobile platform reproducing the representative movements of a buoy deployed in the Gulf of Lion
• Development of a motion compensation algorithm

Resources

POWSEIDOM project sheet (PDF)

Partners and funding

This project is led by France Energies Marines.

The total project budget is €834K.

This project receives funding from France Energies Marines and its members and partners, as well as French State funding managed by the National Research Agency under the France 2030 investment plan.

Photo credit: Christian Schwier / AdobeStock