Wind Pole Ventures tackles faulty wind data

For wind power to take a firmer hold, a missing ingredient must materialize: data.

Wind Pole Ventures is building a business as an information broker, gathering more accurate wind speed information for sale to wind farm developers. Last month, the Lexington, Mass.-based start-up signed on its first customer, Invenergy, which will use Wind Pole's data service to better predict wind performance.

There's better wind speed data at the top, says Wind Pole Ventures.

(Credit: U.S. Air Force)

Wind power has grown rapidly in the U.S. over the past few years, but the output of large-scale farms has not always matched expectations, which means those projects are less profitable than predicted. Varying wind speeds also make managing the reliability of the grid more complicated, as unanticipated dips can cause outages.

Wind Pole has bought the rights to place wind speed measuring devices, called anenometers, on microwave towers. There were 1,200 of the towers put in place for communications during the Cold War, some of which are used as cell phone towers. But they were largely made obsolete by fiber optic links, said Steve Kropper, founder and CEO of Wind Pole.

Gathering data at 100 meters (328 feet)--about the same height of wind turbines' towers--delivers far more accurate information than getting a reading at 10 meters, which is how data is typically gathered now, Kropper said.

"Ten states have more than 3 percent wind power in their state and because it's intermittent, it comes and goes. So wind has the capacity to provide the grid or destabilize it," he said. "Since there is not storage yet, all we can do is have better predictions for when it blows and when it stops."

There are other companies and technologies aimed at getting more accurate wind speed data. Somerville, Mass.-based Second Wind has a solar-powered, land-based device that gathers data via sodar, which is like radar but uses sound waves instead of radio waves.

Kropper said that using "old-fashioned" anenometers allows it to be relatively cheap and attract investors wary of new technologies. Invenergy plans to use data gathered from almost 60 towers in six states in the U.S.

[rmullen0]

Is anonometer the same as an anemometer, a mispelling, or something different?

[mlamonica]

that's a misspelling. thanks for catching.

Adding the anemometers to exsiting cell phone towers is a great idea. Its a cost savings measure for both sides.

This is brilliant.

Mark

www.advoca.com

[carlhage]

Personally, I would rather see detailed wind monitoring and prediction done as an open collective effort managed by the national weather service, national center for atmospheric research, and department of energy. Ultimately, consumers are going to end up paying for this anyway and we as a nation would benefit in lower electric rates, more reliable service, etc. if there were better predictions on wind/solar power availability-- both for planning of wind farms and predicting the next day's output. Instead of having a bunch of private companies install monitors, made the information proprietary, then sell to the highest bidders, it's better to have freedom of information and allow any use-- from researcher, distant wind farm operator, home-brew power, to the big wind farm developers with money. Add lots of sensors operated by governments and electric utilities, give incentives for each wind turbine owner to contribute data to the pool, and share information everywhere without copyright or license. Then we could have vastly improved public weather modeling (an extension of current efforts), plus private companies are free to develop proprietary prediction and management software, all using the same set of nationwide public data.

Free redistribution of sensor data should be a condition for placing sensors on public (or quasi-public) transmission lines and right-of-ways. Data could be collected and redistrubted electronically at near zero cost. Privatization means only limited data would be available to the highest bidders who have high economic gain. Free information would allow new improved analysis to be developed, and would allow improvements to the existing computer weather modeling and prediction.

DOE should fund new efforts extending current weather services with specialized detailed reporting and predictions for wind and solar energy. Perfect use of public funds. We all could use it from utilities to people with solar panels on their roof. Without free public sensor data, the Smart-Grid is going to end up with tunnel vision, and will be severely hobbled. We can pay for our own power meters (utilities can get a loan to install them), but we can't have free exchange of critical energy-related information without public funding.

[GRobLewis]

Amen! (or should I say "anen"?"anenometers", get it?)

Seriously, businesses hoarding information is so 1990's!