Operator of UK wind farms selects Sodar to better plan operations

One of the UK’s biggest renewable energy companies is using Second Wind’s Triton Sonic Wind Profiler to evaluate wind farm sites and position wind turbines for maximum productivity and profitability. Triton, a remote sensing system, uses sodar (sound detection and ranging) technology to measure wind at greater heights than the previous tower-based standard. Triton’s compact form, ease of deployment, low power requirements and reliability give wind power companies the versatility to streamline wind-farm developments.

Sodar will let the company forecast more confidently annual energy production by measuring wind at the heights covering the full rotor sweep of a commercial turbine, which yields the most accurate portrait of wind resources on a particular site.

“Used in conjunction with tower-mounted sensors, we expect the wind data will let us obtain better project financing terms,” says RWE npower renewables analyst Annabel Gammidge.

“Beyond project financing, we see the portability of the Triton system as an advantage. We can move them around our site to obtain a stronger characterization of the wind, rather than being stuck with the data from one hard-to-relocate tower,” says Gammidge.

Before deploying its first Sodar unit on a wind measurement campaign, RWE tested the unit against data collected from a 60-m met tower in northern England. The Triton and met tower data correlated well with a correlation coefficient of 0.986. There was a differential in average wind speed at 60 meters of less than 0.9%, and the Triton system demonstrated a reliability of 99.8%. The Triton performed as well as promised so RWE was able to move it to a wind farm development site in Wales that was under evaluation.
RWE npower renewables
www.npower-renewables.com
www.rweinnogy.com.

Second Wind
www.secondwind.com

Sodar sensing for hub-height wind used more widely

Remote wind sensing is winning broader acceptance as wind farm developers use it to measure wind characteristics such as in-flow angle and turbulence. Investors are also putting confidence in remote sensing data. This message emerged from the annual Triton User Group sponsored by wind technology company and sodar manufacturer Second Wind.

Independent engineers, consultants, and Second Wind Triton Sonic Wind Profiler customers envisioned a broader role for remote sensing (sodar) in their comments at the Triton User Group and workshop sessions held prior to the American Wind Energy Association’s annual conference. Users agree that remote sensing is a logical option as the wind industry searches for ways to reduce the uncertainty of evaluating and financing wind-power projects.

Second Wind’s Triton, an advanced remote sensing system, uses sodar (sound detection and ranging) to measure wind speed and direction. The company says measuring wind speeds at the turbine hub height and higher lets the units reduce uncertainty in annual energy production (AEP) forecasts. Easy to install (two men and a pickup) and with autonomous operation, these sodar unit are used throughout the wind industry, alone or with met towers, to streamline wind-farm development and to improve their operations. The panel included representatives of AWS Truepower, Chinook Wind, DNV Renewables, and GL Garrad Hassan.

A concern echoed by multiple panelists is that the portability of the remote sensors might encourage wind prospectors to shorten measurement campaigns. “We cannot complete a wind-resource assessment in a week!” said one panelist. His message was reinforced by another assertion that “Short-term measurement campaigns won’t reduce uncertainty but can lead to incorrect conclusions.”

Evaluating complex terrain was a recurring subject. More than half of the users at one session said they are using sodar on topographically complex sites and finding that the results correlate well with conventional tower-mounted instruments.

Throughout the conference, discussions focused on the importance of reducing uncertainty in wind resource assessments, and the increasing role that remote sensing systems play in reducing uncertainty. During a panel discussion on the future of resource assessment, Gisela Kroess, Managing Director, Project & Commodity Finance, UniCredit Bank AG, said the main source of the widely reported 10% underperformance of North American wind farms in recent years is due to overestimating wind speeds, a consequence of using flawed methods of measurement and extrapolation.

Second Wind
www.secondwind.com

Triton sonic wind profiler makes its way to the UK

One of the UK’s biggest renewable energy companies is using Second Wind’s Triton Sonic Wind Profiler to evaluate wind farm sites and position wind turbines for maximum productivity and profitability.

RWE npower renewables operates 23 wind farms and 18 hydroelectric plants in the UK. Its parent company, RWE Innogy, is one of Europe’s leading energy companies, supplying electricity to 16 million customers. RWE npower renewables uses two Triton units to profile wind speed, direction, shear, and other variables at existing and prospective wind power sites. Using the Tritons, RWE npower renewables can more confidently forecast annual energy production (AEP) by measuring wind at the heights covering the full rotor sweep of a commercial turbine, which yields the most accurate portrait of wind resources on a particular site.

“We’re using Triton because we’re confident that the new generation of remote sensing technology will reduce the uncertainty in our wind resource assessment,” says Annabel Gammidge, Regional Analytical and Monitoring Strategy Manager at RWE npower renewables. “Used in conjunction with tower-mounted sensors, we expect that the Triton data will allow us to obtain better project financing terms.”

Triton is a remote sensing system that uses sodar (sound detection and ranging) technology to measure wind at greater heights than the previous tower-based standard. Triton’s compact form, ease of deployment, low power requirements and high reliability give wind power companies the versatility to streamline the wind farm development process.

“Beyond the project financing applications, we see the portability of the Triton system as an advantage. We can move Tritons around our site to obtain a stronger characterization of the wind all over the site, rather than being stuck with the data from one hard-to-relocate tower,” Gammidge says.

Before deploying its first Triton on a wind measurement campaign, RWE npower renewables tested the unit against data collected from a 60-meter met tower in northern England. The Triton and met tower data correlated extremely well with a correlation coefficient of 0.986. There was a differential in average wind speed at 60 meters of less than .9%, and the Triton system demonstrated a reliability of 99.8%. The Triton performed as well as promised so RWE npower renewables was able to move it to a wind farm development site in Wales that was under evaluation.

Second Wind www.secondwind.com

 

 

University plans to put West Virginia surface mine sites to wind use

Triton Sonic Wind Profiler and SkyServe wind data service provide accurate, versatile platform for documenting wind resources in ‘brownfield’ areas too rugged and isolated for met towers.
Coal mined from West Virginia’s mountains has powered this country for decades, and now Second Wind’s wind data collection equipment is helping former and active coal mining sites find second energy-producing lives as homes for wind farms and other renewable energy facilities. Marshall University’s Center for Environmental, Geotechnical and Applied Sciences (CEGAS) is using Second Wind Triton Sonic Wind Profiler and SkyServe satellite wind data service to evaluate the wind energy potential on former surface mine sites. Working with the West Virginia Division of Energy and the Appalachian Regional Commission, CEGAS has used the Second Wind technology to evaluate two former surface mine sites around the state, and is presently evaluating a third. The university’s goal is to help surface mine property owners determine whether they can make strip-mined land productive again by converting it to renewable energy uses, with wind being one of the primary energy resources.

The CEGAS staff chose Triton because, they said, it reliably measures wind at turbine hub heights of 80 meters and higher, and its mobility allows using it at hard-to-access sites. CEGAS also uses SkyServe to collect data from the Triton, eliminating the need to travel to sites and collect data manually. As part of deploying the Triton, CEGAS confirmed its performance with multiple three-week studies, correlating Triton data with data from nearby met towers. That gave the university a versatile, cost-effective alternative to met towers, which would have been difficult and expensive to erect on the surface mine sites, according to CEGAS Environmental Manager George Carico.

“West Virginia is a rural state and travel can be tough,” he said “Triton is super easy to operate and has great mobility. We take it to remote surface mine locations on a trailer pulled by a four-wheel drive vehicle and have it working within a few hours. Some of these sites are miles off the electric grid, so Triton’s solar panels and deep-cycle battery units save us from setting up and refueling remote generators. SkyServe also makes the system easy to use because we can retrieve data from our Triton remotely, export it straight into spreadsheets and consolidate it with data from Windographer and AWS Truepower Wind. It puts everything we need right at our fingertips.”

Triton, an advanced remote sensing system, uses sodar (sound detection and ranging) technology to measure wind in the areas that most affect a wind turbine’s performance. By measuring wind speeds at the turbine rotor’s hub height and beyond, the unit reduces uncertainty in annual energy production (AEP) forecasts.

SkyServe Satellite Wind Data Service is a remote communications system that lets Triton users view wind data in near-real-time. SkyServe uploads wind data every 10 minutes, via Globalstar satellite, to a secure web server. SkyServe adds a GPS location and time stamp to all data as it’s recorded, eliminating the inaccuracy or guesswork that can accompany remote data without GPS information. Its suite of reporting tools translates wind data into information.

“Marshall University’s work on the reuse of surface mines underscores an important fact in the wind power industry, which is: you have to go where the wind is and sometimes it’s in a challenging location,” said Second Wind CEO Larry Letteney.

Second Wind LLC
www.secondwind.com

Multi-sensor wind survey in the Midwest

Developer Apex Wind Energy and manufacturer of wind measurement systems Second Wind will work together on a  multi-month wind farm optimization (WFO) campaign using two Triton advanced SoDAR systems at a utility scale wind project under development by Apex. This WFO represents the first case of multiple mobile ground-based wind measurement instruments being deployed simultaneously to verify several project sub-sectors and enhance pre-construction energy estimates.

The Midwest site has several years of data from 50 and 60-m met towers that have been used for preliminary energy estimates and to guide the design of various wind farm layouts. Both Tritons have been deployed and will be moved around the site to collect hub-height wind speed data as well as wind speed (shear) and directional (veer) profiles at multiple locations across the project site. The Triton data will enable Apex to evaluate and optimize turbine layout and reduce annual energy production uncertainty estimates.

Both companies will periodically reevaluate the energy analysis as additional data sets are completed to update the project’s financial estimates. “We expect to reduce the overall shear estimate and extrapolation uncertainty and gain a better understanding of sub-sectors within the existing project array layout,” says David Balfrey, Apex Wind’s Director of Energy Assessment. “This approach provides valuable insight prior to confirming final turbine locations and configurations, allowing us to optimize the design of our wind farm. With the right application, it also enhances the project information available for financial due diligence by an independent engineering group and others.”

“We are excited to be working with Apex Wind on developing a Triton wind resource campaign to provide a deeper understanding of the hub-height wind conditions across the project. The Triton offers developers the flexibility to adjust measurement campaigns dynamically due to its mobility and easy acceptance by landowners,” says Larry Letteney, Second Wind’s CEO.

Second Wind www.secondwind.com

 

Wind prospecting in Poland

As Poland’s wind energy industry accelerates its new project development initiatives to meet European Union mandates and exploit the country’s promising wind resources, project developers are being offered expanded access to technology that will help drive the development process. Poland has vast onshore and offshore wind resources and is doubling its wind power capacity every year. Spurred by its own economic growth and European Union renewable energy mandates, Poland is predicted to expand its wind power twentyfold by 2020.

Renewable energy consulting firm Wind Prospect will be taking delivery of two Second Wind Triton Sonic Wind Profilers this month to provide developers in Poland’s growing wind power market with fast, economical access to hub-height wind measurements.

Wind Prospect will make Second Wind’s Triton sodar system available through rental contracts. The rental option enables developers to collect wind data using the wind industry’s market-leading remote sensing technology under flexible financing terms. Wind Prospect will initially be using these two Tritons to support five wind development projects in Poland.

“Using Second Wind’s Triton, we are able to offer developers a simple, reliable and cost-effective means of collecting data at hub height either to supplement data from an on-site mast or for early stage site prospecting,” says Gabriel Amiel, Commercial Manager for Wind Prospect. “In particular, many wind developers are seeking to increase the value of their projects by measuring wind speeds at 120 meters or more for a few months and correlating this with the data from their mast. A Triton is the ideal technology for this.”

“Wind Prospect is filling an important niche in Poland’s wind energy market by providing Tritons to developers through rental agreements,” says Jason Wood, Second Wind’s director of European sales. “Wind developers have to figure their budgets very closely in the prospecting and assessment phases, and there sometimes isn’t room for equipment purchases. Renting is the perfect solution.”

Second Wind www.secondwind.com

 

Measuring Manhattan breezes

Massachusetts-based Boreal Renewable Energy Development is doing some site assessment to help bring wind power to New Yorkers this year. The site is being considered for a rooftop turbine installation that will contribute to they city’s energy needs and add a powerful symbol to its skyline.

On behalf of partner Williams Building Company, a construction firm based in South Yarmouth, Mass., Boreal is assessing wind speed and direction for possible turbine placement on the roof of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The assessment will also help determine the optimal location for the turbines. Boreal is using one of Second Wind’s Nomad 2 Wind Resource Data Loggers to collect the wind data and analyze the potential for energy production at the VA Medical Center. Sensors situated on rooftops between the 19th and 23rd floors measure wind speed and direction, and the data logger compiles and stores the data.

Second Wind www.secondwind.com

Dartmouth students study wind in remote African areas

In a recent talk with Second Wind, I learned a group of Dartmouth College engineering students are using a Nomad 2 Wind Data Logger the company donated to study wind in a remote region of Tanzania. Through the school’s Humanitarian Engineering Project, the students will help determine whether winds in Tanzania’s Kigoma region can drive a turbine consistently and productively. The turbine would provide electricity for tasks such as pumping water and charging cell phones and batteries for residents of Kigoma, an inland region of Tanzania bordered by Lake Tanganyika and consisting mainly of small villages that aren’t on electrical grids.

“Western Tanzania doesn’t have much in terms of recorded wind data, and the terrain is variable throughout the region,” says Molly Wilson, one of the student volunteers. “We are assessing wind velocity as well as direction, and are also quite curious about the seasonal variations as data from some areas show strong seasonal correlations coinciding with the rainy and dry seasons.”

DHE will use local knowledge and the small body of existing wind data to select a prospective turbine location. Students will deploy the Nomad on the site for four to six months to aggregate data from wind measurement instruments. DHE students will collect the data and use it to decide whether to go ahead with wind turbine construction.

The wind turbine builds on DHE’s ongoing efforts to help the Kigoma region develop a sustainable economic base. In the program, engineering students design appropriate technology solutions as part of their classwork. Student volunteers implement the solutions in the field. DHE’s first project in Kigoma was developing a cookstove that uses fuel more efficiently, emits fewer pollutants, and can be built by Kigoma residents from local materials. Other projects include an improved coffee stove for drying coffee beans with less fuel, and a composting latrine.

“Wind is by far the most practical energy source for a region that’s trying to become more self-sufficient while lowering its impact on the environment,” says Matt McLoughlin, Second Wind’s director of tower system sales. “The Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineering project is at the forefront of a very practical kind of sustainable development based on local needs and local resources.”

Second Wind’s General Manager Susan Giordano says though it’s not a systematic process, the company does donate the use of its wind measurement equipment from time to time to aid in a particular research project, like with Dartmouth. “For example, in 2009 we donated the use of a Triton for a wind study on Moon Island in the Boston Harbor, where the City of Boston is considering installing a wind turbine,” she says.

In other news, keeping with President’s Obama’s goals to keep jobs in the U.S., Second Wind will be opening more manufacturing  facilities here. In late 2010, the company opened a manufacturing facility in Newton, Massachusetts to keep up with the growing demand for the Triton Sonic Wind Profiler, and export it to more than 20 countries around the world, including China. Today, the company employs nearly twice as many as it did in 2008. “We expect that the new facility will handle our manufacturing needs for the foreseeable future, including adding 115 jobs by 2014,” Giordano says.

She also explains that in 2011, the wind industry will move more toward an intelligent combination of wind measurement instruments. “Our ProMast 60-m tilt-up towers, introduced in late 2010, make it possible for us to provide an economical tower system that offers a wide range of sensor choices,” she says. Giordano also says the company’s SkyServe data service will really come into its own as a hub for collecting wind data as the market realizes the value of integrating data from tower-based and remote sensors. With Triton, a remote sensing system, Second Wind is in a position to offer a competitively priced alternative to an 80-meter tower. “We’re also going to see Triton enter more countries and be adapted to more and more environments,” she says. “We expect to see continued growth internationally, especially in the Australia, South Africa, and China markets. Recently we’ve partnered with global wind data services providers in these regions to support demand.”

Wind profiling in South Africa

South Africa’s wind resources are estimated by SAWEA (South African Wind Energy Association) to exceed 30 GW. The country has a relatively modest 10 MW of installed wind capacity currently, but the government has a target of generating 10,000 GWh of power from renewable energy source by 2013 (700 MW of which will come from wind). Several of the world’s leading wind turbine OEMs, project developers and service providers have already established a presence in South Africa.

Just six months after entering the South African wind power market, turbine manufacturer Second Wind has sold eight Triton sonic wind profilers and partnered with WISE-Wind Information Sentinel, a wind data services provider, to support anticipated demand for Second Wind’s products.

The company delivered and installed its first Tritons in South Africa in June 2010. Since then, the Boston-based company has taken orders for five more units, including several repeat orders from international wind developer Windlab, which has a development pipeline of just over 2,000 MW in South Africa. The South African Triton implementations have been highly successful, with better than 99.7% uptime.

“Triton has taken off in South Africa very quickly, and we see that as an indication of strong future demand,” says Second Wind Vice President of Sales Peter Gibson. “South Africa is an important emerging market. The government has policy incentives in place and has announced its intention to build a clean energy economy, so we see a lot of opportunity in the near and long terms.”

Second Wind’s partnership with WISE (Wind Information Sentinel), a Triton-certified partner that also provides support for the company’s products in Australia and New Zealand. WISE will provide certified local resources (including Cape Town–based meteorological instrument supplier AfriWeather and leading wind consultant Wind Prospect) to install, redeploy, and field service Tritons in South Africa. WISE and AfriWeather will also provide installation and maintenance support services on a number of the Triton units being installed in South Africa in early 2011.

Second Wind www.secondwind.com

Profiling for the perfect wind project

Renewable energy developer Renewable Energy Systems (RES) recently deployed a third Triton Sonic Wind Profiler for wind resource assessment. RES has long acknowledged wind data analysis as the single most important predictor of wind energy’s cost. “In today’s competitive environment, our customers want rock-solid information that takes into consideration the entire wind picture,” said Andy Oliver, RES Americas’ VP Technologies. “Data collected from remote sensing technology, combined with met tower data provides this insight. In some cases it is not enough to simply extrapolate using a wind shear exponent – we want to determine how the wind speed distribution evolves with height and, when necessary, to in-fill between met towers.”

The company initially deployed a Triton to a site in the Upper Midwest under a short-term rental agreement with Second Wind in late 2009 to validate the system’s performance against an adjacent 80-m met tower and test its field reliability. The Triton passed both tests, correlating with the tower with a coefficient of 0.99, and average 80-m wind speed within 0.2% of the 80-m anemometers’ wind speed. The Triton also demonstrated its ruggedness under intense environmental conditions, with ambient temperatures frequently below -30ºC and a sustained period of 10 weeks with the ambient temperature remaining below 0ºC.

Subsequent to the field test, in the spring of 2010 the Triton was redeployed to a site in Colorado to measure the effects of complex wind flows from nearby high ground. RES Americas recently added a second Triton to its wind resource assessment fleet and deployed the unit to an advanced development site in the Central Plains for hub height and above shear profile verification. In Europe, RES Ltd. also purchased a Triton for use on wind projects in development in the UK.

Second Wind www.secondwind.com

Renewable Energy Systems www.res-group.com