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.
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 ACCREDIDATIONS
We are accredited 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 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.
