January / February - Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association

MADE | IN MINNESOTAWindLogicsA MINNESOTA COMPANYPARTNERING TO REACH OUTby B KylePicture Tanzania, a country alongthe east coastline of Africa. A strugglingagricultural economy and a 67 percentunemployment rate contribute to thisarea’s challenges.Look closer and you will see Dodoma,a city in central Tanzania. This is a highplains area, very rural, with populationat approximately 400,000 and very littleavailable infrastructure or power. Inthis region is a clinic supported by theMinnesota medical community, offeringfree healthcare for the needy localpopulace—again, with little in the way ofconsistently delivered power.WindLogics, a Saint Paul-basedwind resource company, was amongthe group of Minnesota companies andinvestors who, in 2007, participatedin a philanthropic venture to provideelectric power to Dodoma’s clinic. Thefirst challenge was to perform simpleclinical procedures without interruptionof power. The second challenge wasthe installation of a power deliverysystem—independent of any consistentinfrastructure requirements. Leadersof this initiative chose wind turbinesas a key element of the delivery system.WindLogics’ technology helpeddetermine wind capacity in this area, toappropriately size and configure a turbinefor this kind of site.The BeginningsWindLogics was founded in 1989, asynergistic partnership between the supercomputer and the weather modelingatmospheric science industries. Thecompany began with modeling onsuper computers to solve really complexatmospheric challenges. For example,given certain weather conditions, wherewould a coal plant’s plume dispersionimpact a community? They also assistedNASA in solving some complex problemswith potential nuclear payloads on spaceshuttles. If one were to crash, where andhow would emissions travel?According to Larry Sinesio, vicepresident of sales and marketing, “Wewere building our own tool sets to collectweather data. Ultimately, we created verycomplex forecasting systems. By 2002,we already were analyzing the future ofthe business—we wanted to take on anindustry and find a niche for ourselveswhere we could be an industry leader.”The Time for Wind“At that time we were encouragedby the wind industry and attendedour first American Wind EnergyAssociation (AWEA) wind conferencein Seattle,” continues Sinesio. “That yearwe were among only 400 attendees, andyet our scientists were very encouragedby the potential.”Since then, largely due to theirsignificant atmospheric modeling work,WindLogics was acquired by Florida Powerand Light in 2006. Their customer basenow includes wind farm developers andland owners interested in wind power aswell as financial institutions and utilities.“The wind industry really was anatural progression for us,” explainsSinesio. “We focused on developing amethodology to extract wind data fromthe meteorological data we alreadyhad. We applied the models, in a sense,simplistically, rather than doing a fullweather forecast—just a wind prediction.So we began working to learn the industry,apply our technologies and, hopefully,make a contribution to the industry.“In 2004, we were successful in biddingon one of the Xcel Energy RenewableDevelopment Fund (RDF) projects, saysSinesio. “Along with a partner, we studiedWindLogics’ wind forecasting centerin St. Paul, Minnesota.the impact of adding 10,000 megawattsof wind energy to the Xcel system. Ourconclusions, which proved minimalimpact on the grid, were ground breaking,and earned us the AWEA TechnicalAchievement Award in 2005.”Next Generation“One market we see expandingis distributed power and facilitiesmanagement,” says Sinesio. “We seean increased interest and demand forconsulting with corporations abouthow and where to put renewable energyprojects together for their own campuses.”“Actually, Minnesota is the perfectlocation for this next generation work.Nineteen Fortune 500 companies, amongthem of course being 3M, are right here.Even our location here in Energy Park,with its District Energy heating system, isserendipitous to be sure.”“Ultimately, we feel very fortunate tobe located here, in a state committed torenewable energy, and to be contributorstoward what we see as a very bright futurefor wind in Minnesota.” PMB KYLE is the vice president of businessdevelopment for the Saint Paul PortAuthority. She can be reached atblk@sppa.com.sponsored by | HEGMAN MACHINE TOOL INC.January | February 2009 PRECISION MANUFACTURING | 15