FASTWIND | ESA Space Solutions

Objectives of the service

FASTWIND - Financial Analysis using Satellite Technology for Offshore Wind Energy

To accelerate Europe towards net-zero, governments, investors and developers are looking further offshore for wind and floating wind projects. This is driving a need to prospect large areas of ocean for the best potential wind farms where there is little or no resource data available. To assess the viability of these prospects, techno-financial models are needed to optimise, optioneer and compare projects. These models need metocean and specifically wind data to model them robustly.

FASTWIND delivers satellite SAR derived wind products and automatically delivers them into formats ready to use for engineering and financial analysis tools.

The FASTWIND project brings, measured not modelled, satellite-based met-ocean data directly to offshore wind developers, allowing for data-driven decisions of their projects.

We have a unique proposition which directly connects satellite wind data through the FASTWIND platform for a range of potential applications from optimising site selection to improving bankability and maximising the financial performance of operational projects based on forecasting.

The collaboration between Exceedence, NORCE and Simply Blue Group showcases the great potential of measured satellite data as an information source for offshore wind development.

Contact us today to find out more: info@exceedence.com

Users and their needs

FASTWIND products are for:

Offshore wind developers such as specialist Tier 3 project developers and Tier 1&2 energy companies with renewable energy development and operational groups
Professional Service consultants and analysts
Investors seeking reliable project assessment
Governments and planners in emerging offshore markets

Common user needs are:

to prospect large areas of ocean for the best potential wind farms
metocean and specifically wind data to drive engineering and financial models
Engineering, techno-financial and financial models to optimise, optioneer and compare projects

FASTWIND addresses these challenges by deriving data from satellite SAR as a new source of measured met-ocean data for the sector.

Service/ system concept

The FASTWIND project has developed a cloud-based system that integrates Exceedence’s techno-financial analysis software, Exfin, and NORCE’s processing chain for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data that produces satellite wind products for resource mapping.
There are two clear innovations in this project:

the processing of SAR data using an API that gives fit for purpose wind resource data for the customer.
connecting that data directly to a renewables financial modelling tool, which can be used to critically assess Return on Investment, run multiple options of offshore farms and make business decisions

How FASTWIND works:

Users define an area of interest, specifying time frame, hub height, spatial resolution
The API’s return a cost and estimated time for delivery
Once processing is completed, the system returns financial-model ready wind data and a NetCDF file with much richer data for further analysis

The satellite SAR data has been validated against in-situ LIDAR data showing lower error and bias than underlying ERA5 wind models.

Ultimately, every project is dependent on getting good resource information at the front end, to power confidence in both engineering and financial models, resulting in investor confidence in the bottom line.

Space Added Value

FASTWIND uses Sentinel-1 data, which is freely available as an existing large archive of consistent, daily satellite observations spanning the years from 2015 up till current. The latter ensures that valid wind statistics can be obtained that represent with high confidence a realistic variation in wind conditions and the true wind distribution for the AOI. The Sentinel-1 satellites being a part of the Copernicus programme further guarantees continuity in data delivery, as well as scientific quality of the algorithms implemented for wind retrieval.

Benefits of FASTWIND:

Access to Sentinel-1 archives since 2015 ensures reliable, continuous datasets for risk assessment and forecasting
Reduces upfront data costs and speeds up prospecting and pre-development workflows
Rolls satellite wind data into financial metrics like LCOE, NPV, IRR, payback without manual processing
Lower error and bias than underlying ERA5 wind models – this gives greater confidence in the financial models.

Current Status

Source: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2014/02/Sentinel-13

Conclusions of the successful piloting of FASTWIND:

The outcome of the project is MUCH BETTER than we anticipated. The data we are generating is more accurate than modelled data and we have verified this through Cal Val.
Our pilot engagement is much deeper and detailed than we expected with pilot teams doing their own calibration and validation exercises and coming to the same conclusions.
One of the pilot companies submitted a new methodology to DNV with FASTWIND included and this could lead to standardisation and bankability of the service.

Contact us today to find out more: info@exceedence.com