EOLOS has deployed two weather buoys in support of the largest U.S. offshore wind farm under development

Developer Dominion Energy selected the floating LiDAR technology supplier via its U.S. partner Ocean Tech Services for two simultaneous weather measuring buoys that will track windspeeds, sea surface weather conditions, ocean currents and temperature over a one-year campaign.

Located 27miles off Virginia Beach, Va., the deployment continues to add to the fleet of EOLOS assets installed along the U.S. East Coast. The USA is now the most successful market for EOLOS.

Dominion Energy appointed Ramboll as its Owner’s Engineer, who supported Dominion Energy in performing a comprehensive evaluation of the EOLOS technology and the domestic project execution capabilities of Massachusetts based Ocean Tech Services, as part of the competitive tender process.

“Understanding the weather data and patterns in our lease area is critical to the successful construction and operation of CVOW, and the EOLOS buoys will help us gain this essential information,” said Grant “GT” Hollett, Dominion Energy director of offshore wind.

Raya Peterson, Ramboll’s project manager says: “Accurate wind measurements are crucial for the development of offshore wind farms. The EOLOS system offers state of the art LiDAR measurements utilizing a unique, purpose-built buoy with good track record.”

EOLOS deployed two of its FLS200 buoys integrating the ZX Lidars ZX300M LiDAR for wind measurements up to 200m, complete with a suite of metocean instrumentation to provide valuable wave and undersea current data that will contribute to turbine foundation design and provide insights into future logistic operations during offshore wind construction and maintenance. A turn-key data-as-a-service package ensures high data quality during the campaign term, with the assets leased for the project duration.

EOLOS Sales Director, Julian Harland recognised that “Ocean Tech Services has consistently delivered across the projects secured. Their credibility and reputation along the East Coast are evident from the vendor qualification stage through to flawless offshore operations. For EOLOS this partnership has now matured to an extension of our own capabilities: and we will leverage this relationship to be an experienced candidate for the offshore wind developers for further opportunities in the USA including California.”