TO MEASURE MORE WIND

Patrick-Murray Administration Celebrates New Wind Measurement Manufacturing Facility and Development of Wind Energy Data Partnership
October 27, 2010 (Massachusetts Clean Energy Center)

"Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Ian Bowles today visited wind measurement company Second Wind…[and] announced a partnership between Somerville-based Second Wind, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) and Arlington-based WindPole Ventures to construct a wind measurement information network that will aggregate real-time, hub height standardized wind speed data, which will be used for future real-time forecasting and assure that Massachusetts’ wind farms operate more efficiently…

"Secretary Bowles announced that Second Wind, WindPole Ventures, and MassCEC will…deploy a regional network of technology to gather wind resource information, which will provide high quality data to help the state make the most of its wind resource. Massachusetts is the first state in the nation to deploy this type of regional network."

click to enlarge

"…[A] pilot wind measurement network in southeastern Massachusetts…will consist of seven to ten sites in which wind data will be collected on the ground with Second Wind’s Triton Sonic Wind Profiler technology or via hub-height-tower based collection methods provided by WindPole. The wind data collection will serve a variety of wind project development needs…

"…[Also,] Secretary Bowles joined Second Wind executives to announce the opening a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Newton, where Massachusetts-based workers will manufacture the Triton Sonic Wind Profiler, the global wind power industry’s market-leading remote sensing system, and export it to more than 20 countries around the world, including China. In 2008, Second Wind received a $500,000 loan from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust to help develop the Triton. Today, the company employs twice as many as it did in 2008, and expects that the new manufacturing facility will add 115 jobs by 2014."

Measuring at height. (From WindPole - click to enlarge)

"WindPole Ventures provides ‘data as a service’ from its network of more than 12,000 hub height towers to top U.S. wind developers and a regional ISO with a high penetration of wind. In December 2008, WindPole raised its first round of capital with support from MassCEC…

"Wind power in Massachusetts has increased tenfold under Governor Patrick, from 3.1 MW in 2007 to over 30 MW by the end of this year. In addition, the Patrick-Murray administration landed a $25 million federal stimulus grant to construct a Wind Technology Testing Center (WTTC) in Charlestown. Now under construction, the WTTC will test the next generation of wind turbine blades…Wind energy companies that have already chosen to locate here include Siemens, FloDesign, American Superconductor, TPI Composites and Vestas Power Systems, and developers and installers such as First Wind and Solaya Energy…"