Exploring Winds Discovering Power.

Do you have a potential wind power site or just a site that is sometimes windy?

If there isn't any local data available for your area, it may be a good idea to do a wind study. Wind studies are done with anemometers, an instrument which revolves in prevailing winds at speeds relative to the speed of the wind, and wind vanes to record the wind direction. Dataloggers log this data over time and various computations can then be made based on the data collected.

The most important determining value is the average annual wind speed, but it is important to look for trends in the data, including seasonal patterns, and normal minimum speeds and maximum speeds reached. Wind studies can be done at projected turbine heights or at lower heights, if there are mounting places that are readily available. The data from studies at lower heights can be extrapolated to estimate wind speeds at planned turbine heights. Wind studies are especially important for the installation of large turbines, because of the monetary investment in equipment. There are a variety of wind monitoring systems available ranging from less expensive collectors to more precise loggers that record data at regularly specified intervals.