NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Sahtu Settlement Area

Tags: physical sciences, renewable energy, wind energy, wind monitoring, LiDAR survey

Objective(s): To verify that wind lidar technology has reached a suitable maturity that it can be used in place of a meteorological tower to perform wind resource assessment in subarctic and arctic conditions.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.4791. The goal of this project is to verify that wind LiDaR technology has reached a suitable maturity that it can be used in place of a meteorological tower to perform wind resource assessment in subarctic and arctic conditions. The study will use an existing NRG 60m Meteorological tower located in Norman Wells, and a ZX300 Vertical Wind LiDaR. The study will be broken into three sections as follows: 1) The ZX300 will be deployed to the roof of the Western Arctic Research Centre (WARC) where the operating crew will train and become familiar with the device. 2) The ZX300 will be deployed to Norman Wells and co-located with the Meteorological tower. The data gathered by the ZX300 will be compared with that of the existing meteorological tower for a one year period. The data streams from the tower and the ZX300 will be analyzed for their correlation to each other in a variety of weather conditions. 3) Pending favourable data analysis from stage 2, the ZX300 will be micro-sited, that is, moved around Norman Wells for shorter intervals of 2-3months at a time to gather wind data in a spatially distributed manner. The communication plan is divided into three sections to align with the sections outlined in the methodology section. 1) Informational pamphlets and tours of the temporary installation will be arranged to demonstrate the LiDaR technology and how it can be used in place of a meteorological tower. These materials will be aimed at raising public awareness surrounding the technological developments in wind monitoring equipment. 2) The primary project output will be a report concentrating on the data collected during stage 2 of the project. This report will be aimed at organizations and funding partners looking to expand wind resource assessment and wind energy programs in the north. ARI will seek speaker attendance at the Renewables in Remote Communities (RiRC), as well as the Clean Tech Conference in Whitehorse. 3) Aurora Research Institute will seek micro-siting locations with the assistance of local organizations in Norman Wells. The research teams hope that one of these locations could be closer to the town centre of Norman Wells and therefore serve as a good location to perform local tours of the installation. Specific targets for these tours would be the local economic development office, the town office, local development corps, and the local school. As part of a broader initiative, the research team is working to increase the amount of video content that is being produced about its projects. As a result, the team plans to produce informational videos surrounding the work for this project. The videos will not only concentrate on the results, but also describe the process for setting up the project, managing the installations, and operating the equipment. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from February 4, 2021 to December 31, 2021.