November 14, 2011. Buxton, North Carolina.
WeatherFlow’s Wind Energy Mesonet (WEM) continues to expand in a steady manner, even as market conditions in the wind energy sector remain unsettled due to uncertainty about federal policy towards wind and other renewable energy sources. Even though the rate of new wind installations has slowed for now, the benefits of a consolidated, single-source network of hub-height observations remain clear.
Recent highlights include the installation of two tall tower-based SCYLLA observing systems in Merkel and Sweetwater Texas, located in the nation’s largest wind production area in West Texas. Data from these two towers is being ingested in to the WeatherFlow databases, where it is being analyzed by WeatherFlow meteorologists and being made available to selected WeatherFlow partners. WeatherFlow’s Triton SODAR remains in operation in Massachusetts, where engineers are working with local authorities to help gauge the wind resource along the Massachusetts coastline.
Further south on the East Coast, WeatherFlow recently was awarded a contract by the University of North Carolina to place SCYLLA instruments on a tall tower in the Outer Banks. Initial planing is focused on a pair of towers in the Buxton area, with an anticipated installation in the first quarter of 2012. This location will provide an unprecedented boundary layer data set for use in evaluating this potentially rich offshore wind zone.
