EOLOS to Deliver Floating LiDARs for New York Bight Campaign

EOLOS Floating LiDAR Solutions will provide two of its floating LiDARs for the New York Bight metocean campaign, for which NYSERDA just awarded contracts to Ocean Tech Services (OTS) and DNV GL.

The Spanish company will supply the technology as part of its collaboration with the U.S.-based OTS.

EOLOS said it is now working on the two buoys and will ship them to U.S. waters in Spring 2019 for the two-year consecutive wind and metocean campaign.

Since the site investigation includes monitoring of bird and marine mammals, OTS and EOLOS had also engineered a solution for this aspect of the study and made it a part of their bid to the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Stephen O’Malley, President of Ocean Tech Services, said: “[W]e placed our bets on the EOLOS technology, proving themselves to deliver a competitive tender while meeting the technical challenges this project faces. For me, this sets a working relationship that allows OTS and EOLOS to demonstrate a seamless turn-key offering for future opportunities across the East Coast.”

Julian Harland, Sales Director for EOLOS, said: “From the first invitation to compile a bid with OTS for the significant call from NYSERDA I was impressed with the rigour of the OTS team in their approach to interpreting key needs, identifying opportunities for differentiation and compiling the highest quality offering. This immediately sets a basis for constructive, cost-effective collaboration with clearly identified scope of work splits and the results are in:  the bid has secured its place as the most effective provider of wind data to the New York State Offshore Wind Master Plan.”

Largest contract to date and first deployment in the U.S.

NYSERDA’s tender, awarding up to USD 5 million across the twin scopes of both floating LiDAR turn-key supply and its associated data assessment services, was issued in May 2018.

The following month, EOLOS and OTS announced their collaboration, at the same time EOLOS inked an agreement for LiDAR measurement campaigns at US Wind’s New Jersey offshore wind site.

The rights for US Wind’s lease area off New Jersey were later acquired by EDF and Shell, with no information currently available on the status of previously secured supply chain contracts. At the time, a floating LiDAR buoy at the site was announced to be deployed as early as the end of 2018.

Given the changes within the aforementioned project, the contract with OTS for NYSERDA’s metocean campaign in the New York Bight will most likely mark the first deployment of an EOLOS LiDAR in the U.S. waters.

According to the Barcelona-based company, this is also its largest single contract to date.

Julian Harland, Sales Director for EOLOS, said: “EOLOS has secured its largest order intake to date with the most credible player on the East Coast. The timing couldn’t be more favourable with EOLOS just having completed its move to its new facilities allowing parallel build of new assets and training facilities for continental partners.”

Namely, the company said that the ramp-up in its business led to moving to new facilities in Montcada, Barcelona, and further recruiting for some of the key positions as the team was growing.

To remind, an EOLOS floating LiDAR was recently deployed at the Moray West offshore wind farm site in the UK. Earlier in 2018, the company’s technology was installed off Poland.

Last year, EOLOS also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan Meteorological Corporation and teamed up with Taiwanese Smartec Scientific Corp.

According to Julian Harland, the floating LiDAR specialist continues to heavily bet on the offshore wind market in Asia, along with the U.S.