Strong performance from our floating LiDARs in the South China Sea during Typhoon Chaba
Beginning on July 1st, Typhoon Chaba passed through the deployment sites of 4 of our floating LiDARs in the South China Sea – the third time these buoys have encountered a typhoon during their campaigns so far.1 Moving northwest for several days before making landfall in Guangdong province, Chaba brought maximum sustained winds of approximately 140 km/hr, maximum wind gusts at 170 km/hr, and maximum wave heights of 10.67m.2 Yet despite these extreme conditions, our floating LiDARs achieved an average data availability of 100%!
Understanding the effect on wind turbines of extreme weather events – and their incidence and severity – is of course essential for developers to evaluate a site prone to harsh conditions. Wind loading on a wind turbine is proportional to the square of the wind speed3 and can give rise to structural failures.4 At the same time, high wind speed, turbulence intensity, and acute directional changes can significantly impact rotor thrust, generated power, torque, and rotor speed5 and improper control strategies can produce safety issues for the power system.6 Despite these risks, however, many of the China’s offshore wind resources are developed in areas that are regularly hit with typhoons each year.7
For that reason, we’ve made extreme conditions and risk mitigation the centerpiece of our floating LiDAR’s design. Surplus fuel cell capacity helps to mitigate the risk of power supply issues when solar charging becomes a challenge and wind speeds exceed onboard turbine technical specifications.9 A dual-LiDAR standard configuration and redundancy in all main components also mitigates the risk of component failures during these critical periods.10 On top of that, a large counterweight and residual buoyancy in our hull eliminates the risk of capsizing or sinking.11 These features and many more allow Blue Aspirations’ floating LiDARs to remain out on the water collecting the data our clients need.
References
1https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/west-pacific/chaba-2022
2https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/west-pacific/chaba-2022
3https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/13/3/451/pdf?version=1646992750
4https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/13/3/451/pdf?version=1646992750
5https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468013317300384#:~:text=Comparing%20with%20normal%20wind%20condition,failure%20of%20the%20supporting%20tower
6https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468013317300384#:~:text=Comparing%20with%20normal%20wind%20condition,failure%20of%20the%20supporting%20tower
7https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/nathaz/v54y2010i3p827-837.html; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032113002177?via%3Dihub
8https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/13/3/451/pdf?version=1646992750
9https://www.blue-aspirations.com/news/our-philosophy-on-reliability
10https://www.blue-aspirations.com/news/our-philosophy-on-reliability
11https://www.blue-aspirations.com/news/our-philosophy-on-resilience