Wind-data company adds 1,536 towers to wind resource portfolio
March 11, 2011 by Paul Dvorak
Filed under Environmental Issues, Site assessments, Wind Power News
The U.S. map shows locations for 7,000 “fast” towers over 80m. Windpole says it can have data flowing in 90 days.
WindPole Ventures says it has added 1,536, 80+m towers to its wind resource assessment portfolio. The towers are located from Maine to Washington state with a concentration of 720 in the Midwest ISO load-balancing area. This expansion results in over 7,000 Tier 1 towers from which the company can start the flow of bankable data within 90 days. An additional 3,500 Tier 2 towers (available in 120 days) are also in WindPole’s portfolio. The company says its mission is to provide accurate, hub height wind resource data as a service with no capital cost or maintenance obligations by developers. The company provides IEC compliant data at 1/2 to 1/3 of the cost of erecting a new tower. “The tightening of project finance standards means that data from short 60 meter tilt-up towers may have unacceptable uncertainty,” said company founder and president Steve Kropper. “Short-tower data results in less attractive financing terms because projecting short tower data has a wide dispersion and is considered more risky by investors.”
Locations and configurations for the towers are recommended by Voltage-Bar, LLC, a veteran wind-industry consultant. WindPole installs redundant instruments at 40, 60, and 80 m and higher, maintains the sensors, and provides high-resolution data either once a month or every five minutes. “Like the real estate business, our value to developers is ‘location, location, location’, said Kropper. These 7,000 tall towers can provide on-site data letting developers de-risk projects and operators improve intraday forecasts. The company will continue to expand its network.”
When a developer specifies a target development parcel, the company says it will generate a tower proximity report within 24 hours. Alternately, the company makes the database of towers available for search by project developers. The additions and the entire company portfolio are available on Google Earth in KMZ format. A new ARC GIS Shape file will be available in September on request.
WindPole Ventures LLC
www.WindPole.com
Wind data from tall towers without their purchase
July 28, 2010 by Kathleen Zipp
Filed under Condition Monitoring
Met towers are a must for a proper site assessment. But it takes a while to get them ordered, shipped, and erected, and their cost gets close to $100,000. Wouldn’t it be great to get the wind data without the tower?
Engineers at WindPole Ventures agree, and so have devised a way to acquire real-time, hub-height-standardized wind speed data from a nationwide portfolio of towers 60m and more. The company addresses the challenge of wind integration and intermittency by improving the quality of data available to ISOs, wind developers and operators, resource analysts, power traders, and government.
The transmission tower is in Minnesota. About 6,000 towers of this sort are available across the U.S. for collecting wind data.
The company says it has access to 6,000 towers in 39 states. Wind for 85% of the current and planned wind generation capacity passes through its 80 to 100-m towers. A few plusses include:
- Long booms and standard instrumentation lead to bankable data.
- Hub height, real-time data comes within 90 days of order.
- It’s a lower cost alternative to erecting towers and maintaining the equipment.
- Pre-existing towers require no permits. Disclose your plans on your schedule.
Conventional data sources are intended for aviation and consumer weather markets. They do not meet the need for wind-speed data at the hub height and above the 80-m boundary layer. WindPole says it has secured the only national tower set capable of measuring above the boundary layer.
Typically, surface data from 10-m towers at an airport in a valley can help “guesstimate” to the hub-height wind speeds needed by utility scale turbines. Satellite data can also project some land based wind-farm projects. Both are inaccurate and inadequate to meet investor due diligence and support wind power integration into the grid. All parties are focused on satisfying investors’ need for de-risked projects recognizing capital as the top barrier to wind power deployment. WindPole’s plan instruments 580 existing tall towers that extend above the boundary layer of 80m to collect real-time wind speed and direction data.
A few comments on the table
1. These are mostly radio towers, such as Sabre 3600, and not cellular radio towers.
2. Hub height is assumed to be 80m, increasing to 100m.
3. Wide dispersion of forecasting up to hub height yields a ±10% error. Investors pick lower power and revenue estimates that require greater developer equity.
4. Figures exclude maintenance. The WindPole option includes maintenance. All configurations assume redundant anemometers at three heights (40, 60, and 80m), direction and temperature sensors at two heights, and one barometric-pressure sensor.
5. $7,000 (sensors) + $15,000 (tower) plus installation, shipping, land lease, and permit.
6. $7,000 (sensors) + $75,000 to $95,000 (tower) plus installation, shipping, land lease, and permit.
7. WindPole requires a two-year contract commitment.
8. WindPole is responsible for sensor maintenance and replacement under its “data as a service” model.
9. 6,000 towers are more than 80-m high and 1,500 are more than 100-m high. View WindPole sites at: windpoleventures.com/downloads/WindPole_Towers.kmz
10. Many jurisdictions require building permits and inspections.
WindPole Ventures
