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ZX Lidars
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Get in touch to find out more about our Lidars or services.


+44 (0) 1531 651 000
ZX Lidars Willow End Blackmore Park Rd Malvern WR13 6BD
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About us

Decades of research into laser applications has been undertaken by many of our team between 1980 and 2000, led by Dr. Michael Harris, our Director of Science.

“This, combined with the emergence of the commercial telecomms industry resulted in the opportunity for a low-cost Lidar product to remotely sense wind characteristics via measurement of the Doppler shift of light emitted by the Lidar and scattered back from particles in the atmosphere such as dust, moisture and pollen.

Following initial development by the team, Zephir Ltd. was founded in 2007 and our sole shareholder is the UK-based company Fred. Olsen Ltd, founded in 1963 with global outreach.

Fred. Olsen-related companies operate across a diverse set of industries, but a backbone of renewable energy industry organisations including consultants, wind farm development, installation vessels and operation & maintenance teams has helped inform and advise our
own Lidar organisation.”

Our Wind Lidars can be deployed onshore, offshore and mounted on structures such as wind turbines for wind energy and meteorological applications.

Rapid growth in the wind industry combined with our innovative Continuous Wave Lidar technology triggered a chain of products and partnerships.

Our vision statement from the outset has been simply: a wind Lidar on every commercial wind project and integrated into every large wind turbine – a Big Hairy Audacious Goal that we all believe in, from the first employee of Zephir Ltd., Ian Locker – our Managing Director – through to each and every member of the ZX Lidars Family.

After our first successful decade we started out on a new adventure – to re-invest Zephir Ltd.’s (Z) 10+ years (X) of experience to completely re-imagine our Lidar system and make a Lidar ‘platform’. A platform that can be tailored to so very many applications and customer needs. All based on the core, proven and accepted Lidar technology that has featured since day 1.

How it all started

Our commitment to our vision is demonstrated through more than a decade of trail-blazing and Blue Ocean market creation.

03
2003

The first wind lidar to make upwind measurements from a turbine nacelle.

04
2004

The first and original commercially available lidar for the wind industry. The first wind lidar to investigate the behaviour of turbine wakes.

05
2005

The first wind lidar to be deployed offshore – both on fixed platform (2005) and floating platform (2009).

07
2007

The first wind lidar to take measurements from a turbine spinner.

08
2008

The first wind lidar to be signed off against an industry-accepted validation process.

09
2009

The first wind lidar to be deployed offshore on a floating platform (SeaZephIR).

10
2010

The first wind lidar to re-finance and re-power a wind farm.

11
2011

The first wind lidar to be proven in a wind tunnel.

12
2012

The first wind lidar to be used with very short masts and secure project financing.

13
2013

The first wind lidar to provide true dual mode functionality in one platform (ZephIR DM).

14
2014

The first wind Lidar to be subjected to more than 170 performance verifications against an IEC compliant test site.

16
2016

The first wind Lidar to be integrated into a wind turbine OEM’s SCADA system.

17
2017

The first wind Lidar to be deployed across a whole wind farm on a Lidar-per-turbine basis.

18
2018

The first wind Lidar to meet all conditions for Classification to IEC 61400-12-1: 2017.

19
2019

The first wind Lidar to be flown on a Drone (UAV)

20
2020

The first wind Lidar to be accepted in complex terrain standalone (without a met mast)

21
2021

The first wind Lidar to attract more than £100m+ of investment in to wind energy projects.

 
Uk Wind Lidar Production Centre

Europe’s largest dedicated wind Lidar facility

Our Centre is complete with electronics and optical assembly clean rooms for producing, testing and servicing wind Lidar units. At its heart is the philosophy of lean manufacturing that aims to improve workplace efficiency, eliminate waste and improves quality based on real customer and market needs. We actively use a 5S system.

By providing a systematic framework for organisation and cleanliness, 5S helps facilitate the avoidance of lost productivity, delayed work or unplanned downtime.

The benefits? Shorter delivery times, repeatable and resilient products, and the ability to scale to volume quickly as we deliver batches of Lidars to individual clients.improves quality based on real customer and market needs.

What is our 5S system?

01

Sort

Where necessary tools and materials are removed from our workspaces to free up space.

02

Set In order

Where materials and tools are organised to match the requirements for the work.

03

Shine

Where routine, deep cleaning is performed in the work area, and of tools and equipment. Improving the working life of any equipment used.

04

Standardise

Where work is documented so improvements can be continuously identified and shared across the facility.

05

Sustain

Which requires the ongoing effort to maintain the 5S System. Evaluations, clear communication, ongoing training and the allocation of responsibility are all provided to ensure the benefits of 5S are not lost over time.

our ACCREDItations

We are certified in ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and are a member of the Achilles Network.

UK Remote sensing Test Site

The home of remote sensor performance verifications

The home of remote sensor performance verifications

The site is open to all remote wind sensing manufacturers, developers, consultancies, research organisations and turbine manufacturers alike.

We own and operate the UK’s first IEC compliant Remote Sensing dedicated Test Site. An IEC compliant 90 metre meteorological mast enables performance verification of ground-based remote sensing devices operating vertically, and nacelle-based Lidars operating in slant mode, ensuring full measurement traceability of all remote sensing devices to international standards with reference to class 1A anemometry.

Using Lidars and Sodars to an agreed traceable verification methodology is not only advantageous to the development and acceptance of the technologies, but this ‘best practice’ proves beneficial to wind farm developers by instilling confidence in the accuracy and precision of measurements from the remote sensing device.

Our met mast is equipped with state of the art instrumentation mounted across a total of seven heights including MEASNET approved (to MEASNET Anemometer Calibration Procedure, Version 2, October 2009) calibrated Thies first class advanced cup anemometers at 20m, 45m, 70m and 91m, a pressure sensor at 6m, temperature and wind direction sensors mounted at 44m and 88m and a Thies 3D sonic anemometer at 88m to provide more advanced measures of inflow and turbulence.

All of our products are subject to an industry approved performance verification process which can include a period of correlations at the UK Remote Sensing Test Site or against a Golden Lidar.

All performance verifications are conducted in line with remote sensing best practice approaches developed within the EU-FP7-Project NORSEWInD by comparing against corresponding Key Performance Indicators and Acceptance Criteria. Systems can be provided with a fully IEC compliant verification certificate showing performance is of the highest standard required for use in finance-grade wind resource assessments. This certificate can be provided by ZX Lidars or DNV GL.

Our Trusted Service Providers work closely with us to provide worldwide Lidar services to local resource assessment projects.

 

“Despite very tough environmental challenges for the measurement campaign in Tunisia Firnas Shuman is delighted to announce that our ZX 300 wind Lidar allowed us to achieve a best-in-class data recovery rate of 99.93% over a one-year period. The temperature specification of the ZX300 compares favourably to other remote sensing devices and makes it well suited to high temperature conditions.”

Firnas Shuman

"Our customers are delighted that we are able to offer such a comprehensive wind measurement service from just a handful of locations using the ZX 300 together with a short reference mast. It makes securing the necessary data safer, cheaper and quicker. We look forward to undertaking many more campaigns like this in the coming months and years."

Istos Renewables

"ZX 300 is the market leading Lidar and we are supporting many clients now with our measurement services using this technology."

Studio Rinnovabili

"The [ZX Lidars] are easily mobilised from site to site in trailers and provide an instant view of the wind across and above the ranges we lift components at. RPM see Lidars as a key way of promoting Safety First within wind farm construction.”

REG Power Management

“Deutsche WindGuard has been supporting lidar applications since 2004. While stand-alone lidar measurements in flat terrain have already had a high acceptance in the past... The design and structure of [the ZX CFS application] provides the best available solution for bankable wind resource and energy yield assessment based on stand-alone lidar in complex terrain.”

Deutsche WindGuard
 
Find The Right Lidar for you

We can help you find the right Lidar for your needs by answering a few questions

Find The Right Lidar for you

What do you need wind data for?

Image Caption 1

Site Assessment

Image Caption 2

Operational Measurements

Image Caption 3

Other

Find The Right Lidar for you

Where do you need to gather data?

Offshore

Onshore

Both onshore and offshore

Find The Right Lidar for you

How long do you need this data for?

<1

PERFECT FOR:

Small scale projects

Temporary events

Less than 1 year

1-2

PERFECT FOR:

Small scale projects

Temporary events

1-2 years

3+

PERFECT FOR:

Long term projects

Operational measurements

3 years +

5

Our Recommendation
ZX Lidars - ZX Measurement Services

Learn more
Our Recommendation
ZX Lidars - ZXTM

Validate your wind turbine performance and reach financial close with nacelle based Lidar Power Performance Testing. Optimise asset performance with operational power curve and yaw measurements. Develop wind farm Lidar control strategies with wake steering and load control.

Power Performance Measurements and Testing to IEC standards including IEC 61400-50-3:2022

Accepted by all major turbine OEMs

Unique measurements of wakes and complex flow

True wind shear and wind veer measurements across the whole rotor

Learn more
Our Recommendation
ZX Lidars - ZX300M

Reduce your offshore wind farm project and financial uncertainty by measuring wind characteristics higher than a met mast and by mobilising measurements across a whole site with wind Lidar. Integrated in to all major Floating Buoy platforms.

Wind resource assessment and measurements offshore

Responsible for 95%+ of all new offshore wind measurements globally

£150bn of finance invested in clean energy from ZX 300M data

10-300m range - the widest range available of any Lidar

Learn more
Our Recommendation
ZX Lidars - ZX300

Reduce your onshore wind project and financial uncertainty by measuring wind characteristics higher than a met mast and by mobilising measurements across a whole site with wind Lidar. Be flexible within your planning applications by using a low visual impact, low height device.

Wind resource assessment and measurements onshore

Bankable standalone wind data in simple and complex terrain

Extreme environments, proven operation for 10 years

10-300m range - the widest range available of any Lidar

Learn more

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