Page 10: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2019)

Technology New & Notable Image: AMS, Equinor

New Autonomous Vehicle for

Offshore Wind Surveys

A new autonomous sailing platform ers can collect this data completely today’s options, and the Datamaran aims make the collection of offshore autonomously without a manned sup- is now ready for commercial deploy- wind energy data easier, faster, cleaner port vessel. The vehicle is able to con- ment.

and more cost ef? cient. tinuously transmit acquired data and “In keeping with our partnership

The 16-foot wind- and solar-pow- vessel health status to onshore opera- with Equinor, we’ve named this latest ered Datamaran, launched recently by tions via fault-tolerant communication class of vessels ‘Njord.’” said Ravijit

Norwegian energy company Equinor channels. The vessel is propelled by a Paintal, CEO of AMS. “We launched and US technology ? rm Autonomous rigid wing sail while the LiDAR, navi- it successfully last week, and now

Marine Systems Inc. (AMS), carries a gation, and communication systems we’re looking forward to deploying

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging, are powered by deck and sail mounted the technology worldwide to deliver a well-established technology used to solar panels and large batteries. order-of-magnitude bene? ts to off- record wind characteristics hundreds In addition, standard integration in- shore wind development.” of feet above the surface) to gather terfaces enable broad ? exibility in sen- Christer Af Geijerstam, President of data on wind and weather conditions sor payload and survey types such as Equinor Wind US, said, “Equinor’s at offshore lease areas for the develop- standard meteorological ocean, bathy- collaboration with Massachusetts ment of wind energy projects. metric and hydrographic, current and startup AMS underscores our commit-

Typically, this data has been col- wave characteristics, avian and marine ment to collaborate with, invest in and lected by a combination of a vessel mammal detection, and alerting. Over support local business. The emergence traversing the offshore wind area and the last 18 months, Equinor and AMS of the US offshore wind energy indus- a LiDAR system mounted to an an- have conducted studies and built pro- try presents an exciting opportunity chored, stationary buoy. totypes to test the system. These have for local, nimble, innovative compa-

Using the rapidly-deployable Data- shown dramatic improvements in lead nies to partner with established wind- maran, offshore wind farm develop- time, cost and areal coverage versus farm developers.” September 2019 10

MTR

MTR #7 (1-17).indd 10 8/29/2019 1:13:23 PM