Celsia uses WindCube to reduce uncertainties
The client: Celsia
Vaisala solution: WindCube
THE CHALLENGE: Measuring wind shear and wind speed at increasingly taller wind turbine heights
With multiple wind farm projects planned in Colombia, mainly on the Atlantic Coast, Celsia sought the optimal wind measurement technology to provide not only the bankable data needed to secure funding but also the precise measurements for energy yield assessments.
Accurate knowledge of the wind's behavior is necessary to know how much energy will be produced and whether on-site turbines will survive at a specific location. In past projects, Celsia performed wind measurements using an 80m met mast, but with turbines growing larger and reaching higher into the atmosphere, it had become increasingly difficult for the company to measure wind shear and wind speed over 120m using just a met mast.
THE APPROACH: The industry standard lidar for accurate, bankable wind data
The global positioning and expertise of Vaisala were important factors in Celsia’s decision. WindCube® is the most flexible and accurate wind measurement technology available, and, in order to reduce uncertainties, the technology’s data has been proven by experts and international standards and guidelines. WindCube has also been deployed by thousands of customers across the globe.
For Celsia, building, permitting, and installing met masts and instrumentation at the great heights required for these projects would have been increasingly cumbersome, time intensive, and expensive. Consequently, the best solution for Celsia to collect the most accurate wind data at great heights was to use WindCube lidar, which measures the full wind profile from wind speed and direction — above 200m in height. (The newest version of WindCube now reaches up to 300m.)
“We saw that WindCube is a technology that meets our expectations in terms of equipment performance, reliability, track record, and industry expertise. Thanks to the references of different companies worldwide, we found WindCube very well positioned, so we have trusted and chosen it to be used for the first time in our country.”
Ilba Cuadrado Development Engineer, Celsia
In 2018, Celsia installed WindCube next to a traditional met mast for a one-year measurement campaign to extrapolate wind speed. WindCube lidar was then moved to precisely where the turbines would be installed to measure and assess where the wind would be most representative for the future wind farm.
THE RESULTS: More flexibility and more accurate, detailed, and bankable data
With WindCube, Celsia was able to collect accurate, detailed, and bankable wind data at much higher heights compared to a met mast, easily relocate the device to other locations as needed, and truly understand the wind’s behavior at project locations.
By using a met mast, Celsia would have needed to do the interpolations, whereas with WindCube it was not necessary; the company only needed to configure the height at which it wanted to conduct measurements, which can be easily configured to measure at 12 user-defined distanced simultaneously in order to meet wind resource assessment needs at various turbine heights. (The latest version of WindCube now measures at 20 heights.)
In terms of performance, a widely recognized consultant has validated the measurements made at different heights, revealing the uncertainty due to shear was lower since Celsia was able to make a very complete measurement campaign with WindCube.
Even better, the installation, setup, and connection were so fast and simple that WindCube was installed early in the day, and Celsia was already receiving data by the afternoon. Another benefit Celsia enjoyed was WindCube Insights — Fleet, the easy-to-use, secure, cloud-based software tool that provides real-time insights, allowing Celsia to access and manage the lidars and data.