A confidential owner of oil and gas platforms in the North Adriatic Concession area has contracted renewable energy consultancy Megajoule to install multiple wind Lidars as part of the company’s Low Carbon Development Strategy.

The offshore industry standard Lidar ZX 300M will be deployed to begin taking measurements up to 300m from their installed position on the gas platforms to support the assessment of potential wind energy in the area. Best practice for any wind development is to measure wind conditions at heights that respond to the expected wind turbines and with the introduction of 15MW+ generators this introduces 260m hub heights and 220m rotor diameters dismissing the feasibility of using met masts.

ZX 300M has been responsible for more than 95% of offshore wind measurements from floating platforms and the use of the technology has attracted more than £150bn in clean energy investment in the last 5 years alone. It is expected that Megajoule’s deployment of these Lidars shall also be used to finance future offshore wind farm development in the Adriatic.

A spokesperson for Megajoule commented: “For decades we installed tall met masts at sea – it was the way offshore wind resource assessment was done. Today’s modern approach is with Lidar, specifically ZX 300M which in a relatively short period of time has probably already gathered more offshore wind data than ever previously existed from masts. It is the new standard for offshore wind resource assessment and Megajoule are proud to sign contracts with our confidential client, and with ZX Lidars to unlock the future of offshore wind in the Adriatic.”