Wind industry’s longest-range turbine-mounted lidar enables power performance testing for any onshore or offshore wind turbine.

Leosphere, a Vaisala company that specialises in developing, manufacturing, and servicing turnkey wind lidar instruments for wind energy, aviation, meteorology, and air quality, have announced WindCube® Nacelle – a lidar that mounts on the nacelle of all turbines to measure the wind conditions at hub height – now has the unprecedented capability to measure from 50 to 700 meters (nearly doubling the previous maximum measurement range of 450 meters).

“Whether onshore or offshore, the WindCube Nacelle’s extraordinary measurement range and accuracy provides a complete picture of the wind profile — whatever the turbine rotor size,” said Alexandre Sauvage, CEO of Leosphere. “As turbines continue to grow taller, performance testing and verification becomes increasingly important as underperformance equates to reduced power output and significant lost revenue."

Fully compliant with wind industry best practices and an upcoming IEC standard, the WindCube Nacelle mounts temporarily on or fully integrates into the nacelle and enables operators and wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to efficiently and accurately assess turbine performance.

WindCube Nacelle serves all turbines, the lidar measures horizontally at hub height from all turbines, no matter the size or rotor diameter. Moreover, 20 simultaneous measurement distances enable in-depth analysis. It is the only lidar on the market providing rapid data completion that meets the PPT (Power Performance Testing) requirements of the largest wind turbines, ultimately reducing operational cost while increasing efficiency. The WindCube Nacelle is easy to deploy and maintain. Simple installation, lightweight components, full integration capability, and straightforward configuration processes ensure fast time-to-value on any wind farm.

Designed to simplify information obtained by WindCube Nacelle, the recently launched WindCube Insights Analytics – a proprietary data analytics software tool – is the first in the industry to maximise both lidar data and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) turbine performance intelligence. By seamlessly allowing operators to perform quick, easy, and transparent power performance testing calculations, with IEC-compliant filtering, customers are more available to focus on the most essential performance analysis work.