ESSEN, Germany, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- German energy company RWE said it was deploying a laser measuring system at an offshore site that may assist in determining regional wind regimes.
RWE Innogy announced it was deploying laser measuring buoys at the site of its Gwynt y Mor wind farm off the Welsh coast.
RWE Innogy Chief Operating Officer Paul Coffey said there's an "immense" need for more research into offshore wind power.
"The construction of measuring stations is an important step toward recording and analyzing local wind conditions," he said in a statement.
The buoys will measure wind speeds 10 miles offshore horizontally and vertically as high as 650 feet. The trial is part of a program aimed to cutting the cost of offshore wind by 10 percent by 2015. The first set of data is expected by 2013.
Gwynt y Mor will have an installed capacity of 576 megawatts and is to come online by 2014. The name is Welsh for "sea wind."