The quick recovery of the drifting FLiDAR
A 14-tonne platform deployed to measure wind and sea conditions off the South Taranaki Bight slipped its mooring and drifted without power for hours before being recovered.
The Floating Light Detecting and Ranging (FLiDAR) device deployed by Taranaki Offshore Partnership was tracked using GPS and recovered safely within 24 hours.
When it came loose in February, it was anchored 37km off the coast from Pātea, where it had been since June last year, as part of feasibility studies for the partnership’s plan to build a $5 billion wind farm.
The FLiDAR, which looks like a stubby blue and yellow tug with a cut-down container welded to the top, generates its own power through solar panels and an onboard turbine.
Partnership business development director Giacomo Caleffi said a rope that connected the FLiDAR to its moorings had come undone.
“The GPS tracking immediately alerted our operations and marine team that the FLiDAR was not in the place it should be,” he said.
“This happened at night and it was followed all night. Then in the morning we got a vessel from Wellington because there were none available at Port Taranaki, and it sailed to rendezvous with the FLiDAR.”
Maritime New Zealand was informed of the incident so other vessels could be notified about the FLiDAR, which has its own automatic identification system so was visible to other craft, Caleffi said.
The FLiDAR was secured and towed back to Port Taranaki, where it was inspected.
It had taken a few weeks’ wait for a window of calm weather so a vessel could safely tow the platform back out to sea, he said.
“Working in maritime settings can be unpredictable for a number of reasons, which is why Taranaki Offshore Partnership has rigorous monitoring and processes in place for this eventuality.
“In this instance, the quick response reflected that these processes are working as designed.”
An internal investigation was under way to discover how the incident, which occurred during calm weather, happened, Caleffi said.
The FLiDAR was to gather data for 12 months and this might not need to be extended despite the interruption, he said.
The partnership was also part of a consortium of developers collecting data with a fixed LiDAR attached to the Kupe platform, so it was possible data from there could be used to complete the studies, he said.
Caleffi said working through the rough conditions caused by the strong winds in the region, which made it so suitable for generating electricity, was a conundrum of the offshore wind industry.
Meanwhile, five other developers are also making plans to build offshore wind farms off the South Taranaki coast, projects that will cost billions each.
The Government’s regulatory framework is expected to be announced later this year, with feasibility permits from mid-2025.
An offshore wind energy industry could play a critical role in helping New Zealand meet net zero targets, while contributing nearly $50 billion to gross domestic product and creating 10,000 jobs. That’s according to a national offshore wind energy industry impacts study released at the Offshore Renewable Energy Forum in Hāwera in March.