The company has had some strong announcements recently, including a development partnership with Gamesa and a large trial with Canadian Hydro Developers, the largest wind operator in Canada.

It’s often said there’s not much more innovation that can take place around wind technology, aside from tinkering at the edges, and that the big manufacturers have no incentive to change a formula works. But this teaming up of Gamesa and Catch The Wind shows that innovation is alive and strong and that even the majors, like Gamesa, are looking for ways to distinguish themselves in the market. Complacency is no longer an option. Others, including WhalePower, ExRo Technologies, Earthtronics, FloDesign, and secretive Lancaster Wind Energy are also raising the bar on what we can expect from wind technology over the coming years.

As part of the trial, Catch The Wind will install eight test units of its Vindicator on eight Canadian Hydro turbines that are part of a 15-turbine wind farm in Pincher Creek, Alberta. The plan is to do a side-by-side comparison of the turbines with the sensor with the turbines without the sensor. Canadian Hydro is willing to do this because it’s an older wind farm and the warranties on the Nordex N60 1.3 megawatt turbines have expired.

The units will be installed during the last quarter of this year and the field trial will last up to six months. ”We believe the trial will allow us to demonstrate that even minor adjustments to the alignment of turbines can have a dramatic impact on stress loads and energy output, significantly enhancing the profitability of a wind farm,” said Phil Rogers, Catch The Wind’s president, in a statement.

This is a trial worth following closely, as it will demonstrate quite clearly whether the technology works as promised or underdelivers.

Catch The Wind Ltd. has sold its first Vindicator laser wind sensor to AXYS Technologies, which wants to incorporate the sensor into an offshore buoy to measure wind speed and direction on the open water. AXYS has also entered an agreement with Catch The Wind that will see it integrate the sensor into fixed and floating offshore platforms, both fresh and salt water applications. AXYS, which through its license would be worldwide distributor of the product, plans to call it the Wind Sentinel — “the marine industry’s first buoy mounted with a laser wind sensor.”

In a nutshull, the company’s Vindicator sensor is a lightweight, rugged device that’s designed to be installed atop a turbine nacelle, or in the case of AXYS atop an offshore buoy. The sensor is capable of accurately measuring wind speed and direction up to 1,000 metres in front of a wind turbine, making it possible to reposition the turbine and adjust blade pitch before the wind hits. This is important because it can reduce stress on the turbines, lower maintenance costs and lengthen the life of the turbines. Being able to position the turbines in advance of the wind also improves generation efficiency.

Catch The Wind also recently announced it will be part of a field test program in Nebraska. The Nebraska Public Power District will test the sensor at a wind energy facility that has 36 large wind turbines in operation.  Click here for a previous post on Catch The Wind and a link to an article written in Technology Review.

ExRo says its technology can dramatically improve the efficiency of turbines because its unique design allows the generator to adapt more quickly to changing wind conditions and tap a wider range of wind speeds. In addition to my column, you can find more detailed explanation of ExRo’s technology at Greentech Media and Technology Review.

And let’s not forget the potential of hydraulic wind-energy storage, or EEStor’s EESU and its massive potential for storing wind energy. “We’re talking to people very seriously about that,” says EEStor co-founder and CEO Dick Weir.

Oh, and I should also give a brief update on what Thane Heins is doing and its potential benefit to wind-turbine generators. You’ll recall that Heins’ company, Potential Difference Inc., says it has come up with a way to eliminate Back EMF in a generator that acts as a source of magnetic friction and reduces the generator’s efficiency. Eliminate the Back EMF and you get more output from the generator — theoretically. Heins’ has signed (or is close to signing) a licensing agreement with Montreal-based Tesnic Inc., a startup developer of small vertical-axis wind turbines. If Heins’ approach does eliminate the Back EMF, it will allow the turbine to operate at much lower wind speeds because the magnetic resistance will be eliminated. “I don’t have any comment at this point in time… it’s too premature at this time,” said Tesnic founder Horia Nica when contacted by phone.

I’m mentioning all this stuff because I think it’s important to remember that the renewable technologies we see being deployed today aren’t necessarily representative of what we’ll see, say, in 10 years. People seem to appreciate this point more with solar technologies, but not with wind — that is, it’s just a big windmill, right? For all the limitations of wind energy, mostly related to its intermittency, the technology behind it can and will significantly improve. As it does, it will hopefully silence more of the anti-wind folks and inspire electricity system planners who, to date, have approached wind with a skeptical eye.

Why is this important? Unexpected and sometimes abrupt changes in wind speed and direction can affect wind-turbine efficiency and put a lot of stress on blades and other components. Turbines can be repositioned and blade pitch can be changed to reduce this stress, but currently this only happens after the wind has hit. Since maintenance costs are proportionate to wear and tear, it benefits wind-farm operators to reduce wear and tear. At the same time, improvements to efficiency means improvements in revenue.

By giving turbines a kind of “spider sense” — that is, by integrating the laser sensor into the control system of the nacelle — the turbine can be given advance warning of wind gusts, turbulence, direction changes, etc… before they hit. Catch The Wind has designed its system to give the turbines about 20 seconds notice. Again, this is important because currently turbines only react after they’ve been hit.

Now, there are other LIDAR systems used in the wind industry, but only for collecting field data — either as part of a weather station or by wind “speculators” who are trying to find ideal wind-farm sites. These systems shoot their beam into the sky and measure wind speed and direction directly above. They don’t project horizontally in front of a turbine. Also, existing LIDAR systems are more bulky and rely on precisely positioned mirrors, making them less rugged and unfit for long-term positioning on a nacelle under a variety of weather and temperature conditions.

Catch The Wind’s LIDAR is all-fiber-optic — i.e. no mirrors. The lasers are directed by optical fibers. This makes the system light, small and rugged enough for integration into a turbine. The company still has much work to do to prove its device functions as claimed, and to prove it would provide enough of a return on investment to matter to the wind folks. So far, however, preliminary tests are encouraging.

See article in Technology Review for more information.