Our philosophy on reliability

This is the second in a series of posts that will take a deeper dive into the four pillars of our design philosophy – safety, reliability, accuracy, and resilience – and how they are embodied in our new BA-FLS-NX5 floating LiDAR model. In our previous post, we summarized Blue Aspirations’ commitment to the highest standards of health and safety. Today’s post focuses on reliability.

To be valuable, the data we collect for our clients must be continuous throughout the year. Wind conditions are often seasonal and any significant gaps in a measurement campaign can undermine the usefulness of the data. At the same time, floating LiDARs operate under harsh conditions and in remote locations that are difficult to access on short notice. This means small problems can easily cascade into large ones if suppliers aren’t prepared to quickly mobilize teams, repair components, and redeploy.

In the NX5, we’ve introduced more comprehensive redundancy at the system level and amongst critical individual components to eliminate single-point failures. This includes:

• Dual LiDARs (cold-standby by default – i.e. the second LiDAR is inoperative unless damage occurs to the first – with an option to install “hot-standby” dual LiDARs – i.e. both LiDARs collecting data simultaneously);

• Backups installed for all measurement sensors, including sensors for motion, direction, temperature, and pressure, among others;

• Redundant energy supply, including battery banks, fuel cells, solar panels, and wind turbines;

• Spare parts in storage onshore near the site to expedite replacements when necessary; and

• Innovative fuel cell tank design allowing for quick and easy replacement of fuel cartridges.

We also work closely with subcontractors in the region of deployment to ensure repairs can be conducted locally without introducing customs or travel risks into the campaign. Our home is in Asia and we’re uniquely positioned to serve the needs of the Asia-Pacific market, but by leveraging this network of regional partnerships we’ve made our footprint global.

To be useful for offshore wind development, two features of floating LiDAR data are essential: reliability and accuracy. We’ll cover the latter in our third post in this series, but reliability is just as important and through redundancy, preparation, and a global network, we’re able to reduce the risk of downtime and keep our products and services operating effectively.