Floating LiDAR System Industry Turns Ten Years Old!

AXYS FLiDAR® Systems Have Nearly Fifty-Five Years of Offshore Wind Campaign Months Since the Launch in 2009

[Sidney, British Columbia, NOVEMBER 24, 2019] The offshore wind industry has reached an important milestone – it has been ten years since AXYS conducted its inaugural test of the the first AXYS WindSentinelTM at Race Rocks off the coast of British Columbia in the fall of 2009. This successful test launched a new product category, Floating LiDAR Systems (FLS) that over the last decade has grown into a recognized industry that is ultimately changing the pace of offshore wind exploration.

“This is a milestone year for our company and the Floating LiDAR System industry as a whole.” said PS Reilly, CEO & President of AXYS. “Over the last decade our team has learned how use our 45 years of metocean experience to secure high-data availability FLiDAR® campaigns from harsh locations, while in parallel the developers, engineers, and bank’s technical advisers have learned they can trust the accuracy of the data we provide.”

Over last decade the offshore wind industry has continued to accelerate the adoption of FLS as an attractive alternative to building met masts, During the early years, the AXYS team collaborated with pioneering developers to prove that its technology could work in the face of challenging sea states and environmental factors. In parallel, the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator programme developed the initial standards and recommended practices to help shape requirements to verify the accuracy of FLS for offshore assessment, published in a OWA Industry Roadmap in 2013. By the end of 2019, AXYS is projected to have completed more than twenty independent verification trials against five different IEC Compliant met masts in three different continents. These trials prove what many wind resource engineers originally expected, that the AXYS FLiDAR® buoys are capable of accurately collecting wind parameters and metocean measurements across a variety of environmental conditions. These solutions can be implemented at a fraction of the cost and time of a traditional met mast, which allows developers to explore new sites with a lower cost of and risk for site assessment.

Since that first launch in 2009, AXYS has racked up a significant campaign track record with its FLiDAR® Campaigns, recently surpassing 650 months, or the equivalent of nearly 55 years of campaign experience. They continue to innovate, including collaboration with the industry-recognized Stage 3 LiDAR manufacturers ZX-LiDAR and Leosphere (now Vaisala) to strengthen the LiDAR performance offshore.

Today, FLS is often an essential part of any offshore wind developer’s strategy. AXYS FLiDAR® buoys and other tested FLS options have become an accepted technology used by offshore wind developers to cost effectively measure the wind, ocean and climate parameters required during the development and initial project financing of a wind farm. Done well, Floating LiDAR Campaigns can help a developer make sound decisions and reduce the overall COE (cost of energy) for their projects.

About AXYS

AXYS Technologies (AXYS) is an ISO 9001 registered company headquartered in Canada celebrating 45 years of experience in the design, manufacture and installation of remote environmental monitoring systems worldwide, including land-based, floating, subsea, and ship or tower mounted. Offshore, AXYS applies knowledge and experience to marine, freshwater, and far offshore assessment systems that measure aquatic, oceanic, and atmospheric parameters specific to clients’ needs. AXYS has built and commissioned more than 800 meteorological and oceanographic systems of various types around the world, in over 75 countries, and together with our partners we have managed over fifty turnkey validation and full metocean campaigns to support the offshore wind industry. See more at www.axys.com.

Media Contact:
Anastasia Komninou
Phone: +32 470 10 22 20
Email address: akomninou@axys.com