ZX Lidars recently confirmed the appointment of Dr. Steven White as director of Turbine Mounted Lidar as the company scales in market sectors including wind turbine integrated Lidar Assisted Control and non-integrated Lidar for wind-turbine/wind-farm optimization. Having previously led Senvion’s engineering EU North team and with a PhD in laser optics, White combines technical knowhow with practical turbine experience.
Lidar technology, which displaces the use of met masts for wind resource assessment onshore and offshore, provides look-ahead wind characteristics to validate, monitor and optimize wind-turbine performance on both existing and new turbines for the purpose of increased energy output and lifetime extension.
“Innovation, quality, and collaboration are at the heart of the ‘ZX-way,’ and this unique mix is an ideal recipe to bridge the gap between Lidar and turbine technology” White said. “I passionately look forward to closing that gap through customer-focused improvements in operational wind resource understanding and turbine performance, validation, lifetime operations, and control.”
“On our 18th anniversary of installing the world’s first nacelle-mounted Lidar on a Nordex N90 turbine, it is perfect timing for Steven White to join ZX Lidars as we see a now mature technology providing real performance benefits to wind-farm owners, operators, and turbine OEMs,” said ZX Lidars Managing Director Ian Locker. “We have exciting news to share on Lidar Assisted Control this year, and Steven will be spearheading this and all turbine Lidar activities across the business.”
Recent turbine Lidar announcements from the company include:
- The 105-MW Högaliden Wind Farm featuring Vestas V150-4.2 MW turbines will include nacelle-based ZX TM wind Lidars on each turbine.
- Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy approval of ZX TM for Power Performance Testing of wind turbines.
ZX Lidars provides industry-leading wind Lidar products, ZX 300, ZX 300M, and ZX TM for wind energy and meteorological applications. These Lidars deliver accurate wind measurements in both onshore and offshore applications at measurement heights/ranges across the full swept area of the blades of modern wind turbines and beyond. With more than 30 million hours of operation in the field and more than 7,000 deployments (and counting), ZX Lidars has pioneered the use of Lidar in the wind industry. The company is proud of the many world firsts it has achieved with customers including: upwind measurements from a turbine nacelle, turbine wake studies, offshore deployments of both fixed and floating wind Lidar, an industry-accepted validation process, re-financing and re-powering of a wind farm, successful demonstration of measurement accuracy in a wind tunnel, and total wind project financing from a Lidar without need for a met mast.
More info www.zxlidars.com
