Wind and solar power
For manufacturers, developers and operators who want to manage the risks generated by lightning and thunderstorms proactively.
According to DNV, lightning damage is the leading cause of unplanned downtime for wind turbines, and the most common reason for wind farm owners to file claims with their insurers.
Your requirements
All installations on wind farms and solar photovoltaic power plants are highly exposed to thunderstorms and lightning.
The risk is all the greater as wind farms and solar power plants are generally installed on open ground or at height. Once installed, turbines and panels become the highest points in the surrounding area, which increases the likelihood of direct impact.
To minimize material damage and avoid endangering your teams working outdoors, it is important to address these risks across the entire value chain, from the site design phase to repowering and operation and maintenance (O&M).
You are looking for reliable information and decision-making aid tools to:
- design and correctly size lightning protection for your turbines and solar panels,
- ensure the safety of your teams in the field,
- optimize the production of your farms and secure your supply to your customers,
- inspect your equipment likely to have been damaged by lightning before it becomes worse (destruction of blades or panels),
- be able to give your insurance company proof of lightning damage,
- position your solar panels flat when a thunderstorm is passing.
Discover how we support the wind and solar energy sector:
All our solutions tailored to your requirements
Evaluate your exposure to thunderstorms and lightning
Analyze your risks and adapt your means of prevention and protection.
Be alerted to the arrival and end of a thunderstorm
Safeguard people and infrastructures, adapt your operations.
Monitor live thunderstorms and lightning
Optimize your preventive measures and mitigate risks as early as possible.
Check any damage and your installations after a thunderstorm
Determine whether lightning has caused damage and optimize your inspection process.
Integrate lightning information
Feed your own tools with our high-resolution flows and data, in real time or past time.
Receive training on lightning and thunderstorm risks
Develop your skills and your employees’ skills.
Develop your own lightning service capability
Take advantage of CATS and provide your users with services tailored to their requirements.
Do you want to discuss this with your colleagues? Download our summary sheet.
We want to protect our assets by all means, and using METEORAGE’s services enables us to detect a possible failure or strike and carry out inspections in order to perform the appropriate repairs.
The Remote Counter service enables us to identify wind turbines that have been or are at risk of being struck by lightning, in order to optimize blade inspections. The wind turbines we have installed in these wind farms are equipped with protection against lightning called Lightning Protection Systems (LPS), which, in accordance with regulations, are installed in the turbine blades and throughout the turbine. The Remote Counter is a complementary system that also enables us to identify when lightning has struck a wind turbine and when lightning characteristics have passed through the LPS.
The Newsflash service enables us to detect thunderstorms effectively, and the early warning system enables us to identify when thunderstorms are approaching our wind farm. The technicians working on the various wind turbines on the farm are warned to stop their activities, evacuate the turbine and the farm to reach a safe area unaffected by the storm episode.»
ENEL GREEN POWER
Spain
The ability to anticipate a storm episode is a huge advantage for optimizing work and, in particular, guaranteeing the safety of personnel. The site manager receives the alarm in real time and informs the operators in the field.
The Remote Counter service is also extremely useful. The benefits are twofold: first, it reduces or limits losses and thus improves production, and second, it guarantees an appropriate service life for the asset.
Above all, it is highly practical for any insurance claims. From an operational point of view, we cross-reference the data from the Remote Counter report with that from the blade inspection report: this helps prioritize repair operations.
We are able to optimize planning and budgets, while maps from the Remote Counter report enable us to identify the areas most affected by lightning strikes so that we can monitor asset performance. We noticed that a wind turbine blade was performing below its theoretical efficiency. Since it was located in an area prone to storm episodes, we monitored it and found out that the blade was indeed damaged.»
ENGIE
Italy
Electrical storms are by far one of the greatest environmental risks for wind farms.
Our top priority is to ensure the safety of the people working on our wind farms.
It is therefore vital that we have the necessary tools to predict and control on-site operations effectively.
Live lightning monitoring, lightning strike alarms and strong wind and storm forecasts from Meteorage ensure that we deliver the very best in health and safety planning and monitoring.»
VENTIENT ENERGY
United Kingdom
Key benefits for our users
01 No need to install equipment or software.
02Compliance with international standards IEC 61400-24 (wind power), IEC 62858 and IEC 62793.
03High-resolution data from the best detection technologies currently available.
04A dedicated technical team for services operational 24/7.
Are you interested?
Our experts are at your service to help you identify the best solutions to meet your challenges.
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