Wind Energy Feasibility Study - Town Of Orleans

Wind Energy Facility Economic AnalysisTown of Orleans, MA2.0 ESTIMATE OF WIND ENERGY PRODUCTION LEVELSThe following section details the predicted output of a typical 600 kW turbine on the site, basedon available wind resources. Raw wind speed data was obtained from the Orleans 2005 WindData Report for the period from October 2003 through May 2005. The RFQ requested toevaluate the output of a typical 1 MW or similar wind turbine on the site; however, an informalmarket survey of manufacturers indicated that a single 1 MW wind turbine would not likely becommercially available. Therefore, Weston & Sampson based this report on the use of a 600 kWclass machine, which is the next largest wind turbine size that is commercially available.Furthermore, current market pricing, terms and availability are readily obtained from thesuppliers of this size machine. The Elecon Turbowinds T600-48 was modeled as a representativemachine in this class.2.1 Review of Wind Monitoring DataWeston & Sampson reviewed the 2005 Wind Data Report prepared by the Renewable EnergyResearch Laboratory (RERL) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This report includesinformation about installation and decommissioning of the meteorological tower andinstrumentation, and the data analysis and reporting which was performed by the RERL. Thetemporary MET tower was installed at the town watershed and collected data with a monitoringand data logging device. The tower was on a cleared hilltop, surrounded by trees. The location ofthe tower base was reported to be 41.7584 o North, 69.9933 o West using the NAD83 datumreference.The MET tower recorded wind speed data from October 27, 2003 through August 3, 2005. Thestation consisted of two sets of two anemometers mounted at a height of 50 meters (164 feet) andat 40 meters (131 feet); one anemometer at 20 meters (66 feet) and wind vanes at the sameheights. The average wind speed was reported to be 5.77 meters per second (12.9 miles per hour)at a height of 50 meters. The prevailing wind direction at 40 meters (131 feet) was from thesouthwest. The maximum wind speed recorded was 19.6 meters per second. The turbulenceintensity recorded was 0.2 with a shear coefficient of 0.40.6