Galetech Energy Developments Ltd

Funding Source & Value : EI Innovation Voucher – €5k

Project Title : Wind Farm Optimisation

Galetech Energy Developments Ltd is an Irish multi-disciplinary renewable energy consultancy and services provider. They provide development support, technical advisory, project management & engineering services from project feasibility through to construction and operation.

Innovative product/process/service

Yaw error detection and quantification is a major issue in operational windfarms with potential losses from mis-aligned anemometers causing thousands of euro worth of energy to be missed each year. An error of only a few degrees off the true wind direction can increase energy losses and mechanical stresses. The error is difficult to detect and Galetech wish to develop the technique of offering yaw error detection as a service to the Irish wind industry to complement existing technical and project management offerings.

Primary issue to be addressed

Galetech wanted to access equipment and expertise in wind measurement especially for tower mounted laser based wind measuring devices, LiDARs. These devices can measure wind without the need for tall met masts and can be mounted on turbines to allow wind measurements to be made with no moving parts and a simple installation.

Solution

CREDIT Technology Gateway staff supplied a tower mounted Epsiline Wind Eagle Nacelle Mounted LiDAR instrument which can measure wind in front of the rotor disc and has inbuilt GPS compass and data logging. CREDIT TG also provided wind energy analysis expertise to analyse this data in comparison to the turbine’s own logged data and also a reference wind measurement device.

 

Cormac McPhillips – Technical Services Manager

The report is excellent with much in-depth detail. We will definitely use the methodology outlined in the report when carrying out further analysis.