New Wind Turbine Design Good for Rural, Urban Environment

Wind Power and Denise Bode on FOX-TV's Varney & Co., Jan. 26, 2011

Wind Resource Assessment - Review

Wind resource assessment is the process where by wind energy developers determine suitable sites for potential wind farm development. The wind resource assessment involves a series of steps, the first step is prospecting, preliminary evaluation of wind resource of the area of interest, utilizing estimated wind resource map and topographic map, this is a very important stage in that it helps developers and consultants to determine where to look at initially, to see if the resources in the area meet the basic requirements to generate energy.

The prospecting is generally based on GIS desktop study, whereby digital wind resource map, the topographic map and other maps of interest in the area such natural conservation areas, radio communication sites, existing wind farms  and other regulatory features are analyzed based on selected constraints of wind farm site selection. The output of the analyses are maps showing areas of potential wind farm locations based on estimated wind resource of the area. 

The prospecting generalized areas in which to look at for further assessment, it should be noted that the wind resource map used at the prospecting stage are generalized wind resource maps, due to lack of detailed data that is required for determining specific wind resource at the locations for siting wind turbine generators, the question of accuracy comes in. The next stage will be to install meteorological mast at the location identified at the prospecting stage for assessment of the wind resources.
The next stage is using meteorological masts to measure wind data at potential site. Commonly referred to as "Met Mast Campaign". The meteorological mast are installed to collect wind speed data at specific heights including the wind directions, temperature and pressure a for a period ranging from 6 to one year. The wind resource data  collected are short-term period, this is correlated with long-term period data from meteorological stations to get a representative wind resource measurement of the site.

The data collected are analyzed to determine the locations of individual wind turbine generator and the layout of the farm. The power curve of the wind turbine generators and used to calculated the total energy that will be generated at the site. Various software are use for analyzing wind energy they include WAsP, WindPro, WindFarmer to name a few.
To be continued.......  

Wind Energy in USA

United States Wind Energy American Wind Energy Association (AWEA): www.awea.org National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL): www.nrel.gov/wind/ Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association (TREIA): www.treia.org/ International Wind Energy Australian Wind Energy Association (AusWEA): www.auswea.com.au British Wind Energy Association (BWEA): www.bwea.com Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA): www.canwea.com Danish Wind Industry Association: www.windpower.org European Wind Energy Association (EWEA): www.ewea.org German WindEnergy Association (BWE): www.wind-energie.de/en/ International Standards International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC): www.iec.ch/ International Measuring Network of Wind Energy Institutes (MEASNET): www.measnet.com Information on Renewable Energy A comprehensive guide to many aspects of wind power can be found at the following link: http://www.windpower.org/en/tour.htm A good children’s tutorial on wind power can be found at the following link  (includes resources for teachers): http://www.windpower.org/en/kids/index.htm Resources for students regarding renewable energy at the following location:   http://www.nrel.gov/education/