Partrac has recently completed an offshore wind resource measurement campaign at Parkwind and ESB’s Oriel Offshore Windfarm, Ireland, using floating lidar technology.
Partrac has recently completed an offshore wind resource measurement campaign at Parkwind and ESB’s Oriel Offshore Windfarm, Ireland, using floating lidar technology. Partrac selected EOLOS’s FLS200 Floating Lidar solution to provide reliable, robust wind and oceanographic data. Partrac deployed the floating Lidar solution in mid-October 2019 and has now completed a successful 12 month offshore measurement campaign.
The floating lidar continued to report excellent availability even trough severe storms during the 2019/2020 winter season with wind gusts up to 145 km/h. Faced with the COVID-19 crisis, the campaign managed to maintain its schedule with no delays. This schedule was maintained with the assistance of a local team of offshore service providers, including Alpha Marine Services, Irish Commercial Charter Boats and Drogheda Port.
Sam Athey, Director at Partrac, comments, “Collection of site-specific wind resource data is one of the mission critical steps offshore developers need in order to assess site feasibility and take projects forward. We are delighted to have delivered a successful 12 month wind resource dataset to Parkwind/ESB for Oriel (one of Ireland’s first offshore wind farms). Partrac have been working on floating lidar campaigns for over 5 years and the experience we have gained, combined with our metocean consultancy expertise, enables us to provide safe and robust floating Lidar measurement campaigns to the offshore wind industry”.
Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic, Partrac and its technology provider EOLOS have continued to deliver robust high quality, wind resource data with a very high rate of availability, which is crucial for informing design and investment decisions.
The Oriel Windfarm project has been designated as one of a small number of projects granted ‘relevant project’ status under the Irish Government’s transitional arrangements to fast track the roll out of up to 5GW of offshore wind by 2030. The project will be located off the County Louth coast in the North East of Ireland. This location was chosen, following an extensive review of sites in the Irish Sea, as being the ideal site on which to develop an offshore wind energy project. The windfarm will have a capacity of 350 to 400 MW which will provide a significant contribution to Ireland’s targets to have 70% of electricity supplied by renewable sources by 2030.
The project is being jointly developed by Parkwind NV and state owned utility company ESB. Parkwind, one of Europe’s leading independent offshore wind energy developers, currently manages 771 MW of installed capacity spread over four windfarms in the Belgian North Sea. ESB are Ireland’s leading electricity utility and is majority owned by the Irish Government.
About Partrac
Partrac are specialists in the management, acquisition and analysis of metocean and seabed data to provide engineers with solutions to develop and operate coastal and offshore assets efficiently.
With over a decade of acquiring high quality metocean data Partrac is a leading European metocean providers for offshore wind.
For more information about our services and experience please visit the Partrac website: www.partrac.com
About Oriel Windfarm
The Oriel offshore wind farm is in the development stage and is located off the north County Louth coast. It represents a significant investment in the decarbonisation of the Irish electricity system and represents a significant investment from both ESB and Parkwind. Development of the project began in 2003 and the original investors, many of whom are local to the area, secured an experienced development partner when Parkwind entered the project in September 2017. The addition of ESB to the joint venture further reinforced the parties’ commitment to successfully delivering this major investment in Ireland’s sustainable future. For more information, see www.orielwindfarm.ie.
About Parkwind
With over 10 years of experience in developing, financing, and operating wind farms, Parkwind has established a unique position in the industry. With 771 MW under operational management, Parkwind is determined to continue increasing the share of green energy through its collaborative approach with local communities, governments and suppliers. Parkwind is now expanding its presence internationally with the 247 MW Arcadis Ost I project in Germany and the 330 MW Oriel Windfarm project in Ireland. Composed of over 120 professionals operating from offices in Belgium and Ireland, Parkwind consolidates all offshore wind energy activities of its Belgian shareholders. For more information, see www.parkwind.eu.
About ESB
ESB operates across the electricity market: from generation, through transmission and distribution to the supply of customers with an expanding presence in the Great Britain generation market. In addition we extract further value through supplying gas, energy services and using our networks to carry fibre for telecommunications. ESB is the owner of the distribution and transmission networks in the Republic of Ireland (via ESB Networks) and Northern Ireland (via Northern Ireland Electricity Networks Ltd). In 2017 it had a 42% share of generation in the all-island market (via Generation and Wholesale Markets) and a 34% share of electricity supply in the all-island market (via Electric Ireland) with 1.4 million customer accounts.
ESB is a leading developer of renewable power projects in both the UK and Ireland and in 2018, it acquired a 12.5 per cent stake in Galloper offshore wind farm.
ESB contributes almost €2 billion annually to the Irish economy through dividends, investments, taxes and jobs. ESB provides significant employment both directly, with over 7,790 employees, and indirectly through contractors and service providers. For more information, see www.esb.ie
