Wind Site Assessment

Site assessment for wind systems is an incredibly important area for anyone considering installing a wind turbine, whether domestically or as part of a large project. There are a number of key areas that the customer needs to understand before making a buying decision. At Logic Energy, we can provide you with all the tools and knowledge necessary to make the right choice.

At the planning stage it is highly recommended that anyone considering installing a wind turbine should contact an Energy Consultant to carry out a “desktop study”. This will immediately highlight any potential planning permission issues. By carrying out the consultation at this stage you could save a lot of time and money. At Logic Energy we work with a number of the best Energy Consultants in the UK, so if you get in touch with us we can guide you in the right direction and put you in contact with the right people.

If your site looks good, the next considerations are turbine location, height, blade diameter and rotor rpm:

• Location: It is important to scan the area for any possible obstacles that may interfere with the wind flow in the surrounding area and consequently affect the wind turbine performance. If there is a lot of turbulence on the wind turbine path, its performance will be compromised
• Height: Simply, the taller the wind turbine tower the better. The turbine blades need to be as high as possible to minimise the risk of obstruction
• Diameter: Simply again, the wider the diameter the more wind energy the turbine will capture and the more time it will spend spinning. However there may be other drawbacks to having a large diameter so it is good to keep an open mind when choosing wind turbines
• RPM: RPM of the wind turbine can vary a lot from machine to machine and depending on the wind profile of your site some machines may be better suited than others.

Having thoroughly considered these minor issues, you can look for the “perfect” site to install a wind turbine. It is highly advisable to log some wind speeds for a period of time to ensure that the chosen site is as good possible.

It is essential that the readings taken at this stage are accurate – in order to ensure this, readings must be taken from a good installation system as the results depend on the quality of the equipment. If the collected data cannot be trusted, then the consequent report and study are equally useless. Anemometers must be high quality, durable and reliable and it essential that they remain so throughout the period of wind measurement. We always recommend anemometers with at least 1% accuracy and that can maintain that ratio during a period of at least one year. It is disastrous if an anemometer’s linearity changes throughout the year, as it renders all data void. Compromises in quality can cost significant time and money in the long run.

Some of the basic things to look for include measured wind shear, turbulence intensity, energy availability and changes in wind direction. It is crucially important to get this data right. Small and medium size wind turbine sitting and assessment needs to be carried out in as professional a manner as industrial wind assessment. Often the performance of smaller systems is coupled to complex wind profiles, making projections difficult due to more intensive wind turbulence and wind direction changes.