Technological advances in floating LiDAR reduce costs and increase efficiencies for offshore wind development

Offshore wind farms offer a number of advantages as compared to their onshore equivalent, most notably in terms of both the amount and the reliability of the wind resource which can be used to supply significantly more consistent power than onshore farms. Building offshore also offers the ability for farms to scale up considerably in size since they are not as constrained as onshore wind farms with issues such as, proximity to existing populations, noise curtailment, shadow flicker and general NIMBY(not in my backyard)ism. For offshore wind farms the measurements must be gathered and assessed differently, and continual technological developments have improved the process and will continue to do so as the techniques progress and mature. This paper will summarise the work done to date in the field of floating LiDAR, and address the financial implications of the degree of uncertainty in measurement that result from floating LiDAR data as opposed to the state-of-the-art fixed meteorological mast measurements.