The system, likely to be a significant saving compared to the cost of fixed installations offshore, allows wind project developers to begin onsite measurement campaigns before traditional fixed structures could be constructed.

The project, which began in June 2009, sees marine design expertise from the Fred.Olsen group, installation support from SeaRoc and Natural Power's proven ZephIR lidar system being integrated into a single solution for offshore wind developers.

SeaZephIR is designed with a stable spar buoy and continuous wave lidar, tailored to the anticipated deployment sea states to maximise stability. The buoy also measures motion, wave heights and is equipped with a meteorological mast and Class 1 cup anemometer.

The first commercial sale has already been agreed with Garden State Offshore Energy (GSOE), a joint venture between Deepwater Wind and PSEG, both leading companies in renewable energy development.

The first prototype SeaZephIR has successfully completed several months of marine testing, correlations to a fixed mast and a 'twin ZephIR' campaign where two ZephIR lidars were correlated - one onshore and one offshore. Unlike any other lidar, ZephIR features a low, 10 metre measurement allowing correlations to long term data sets and short masts found on existing structures offshore.

Ian Locker, MD of the ZephIR business within Natural Power commented: "SeaZephIR, another product innovation from Natural Power, will drastically improve the time taken to gain initial wind resource measurements offshore. We also have strong confidence in the ability to correlate our floating continuous wave lidar with any ZephIR installed on offshore fixed platforms also."

In response, Deepwater Wind Chief Executive Officer Bill Moore said: "Innovative technologies like SeaZephIR will be important in establishing a thriving offshore wind industry in the United States. We believe SeaZephIR will give us a significant advantage by allowing us to collect empirical data on the conditions at our proposed project sites much sooner than we could with a fixed-base tower."

GSOE Vice President Rob Gibbs added: "Receiving this approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and preparing to deploy this advanced technology is an important milestone for our project and New Jersey's efforts to make progress toward actual construction at our proposed offshore wind farm site 20 miles off the New Jersey coast. Compared to a fixed-based tower, this buoy-based system will save the state $1 million on its rebate program and will be faster to deploy."

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