US renewables firm First Wind has purchased a Wind Iris Lidar to boost the performance of its wind turbines.
The Wind Iris was used to collect wind speed and direction data ahead of the turbine for 30 days, identifying a yaw error of seven degrees.
Following correction of the yaw – the part of a wind turbine responsible for the orientation of the rotor towards the wind – 15 days of monitoring by the Wind Iris revealed the yaw error had been remedied.
“By detecting and accurately quantifying the yaw misalignment, we were able to correct the error and gain significant AEP (annual energy production) improvement,” said wind resource manager Cegeon Chan.
“Based on this evaluation, we decided to purchase a Wind Iris to optimise more turbines.”