COLORADO ANEMOMETER LOAN PROGRAM
 

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Small Wind Electric Systems: A Colorado Consumer's Guide
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NORWOOD - 10/16/2010 to 3/7/2013

LOCATION DETAILS
Latitude:
N 37° 59.494’ or N 37° 59’ 29.64"
Longitude:
W 108° 13.141’ or W 108° 13’ 8.46"
Survey Meridian:
Colorado, New Mexico Meridian
Township:
43 N
Range:
12 W
Section:
17
Elevation:
9,017 ft. (2,748 m)
Datum:
WGS 84
Tower Type:
NRG Tilt-Up
Tower Height:
98.4 ft (30 m)
Vane Offset (deg):
+326°
Direction Basis:
Magnetic North
Mag. Declination:
10° 20' E, changing by 7' W/yr
Wind Explorer S/N:
0663
Site No.:
3788

 CSU ALP Install Team (from left): Eric Rasbach, Laura Imbler, Kevin Gosselin, Mike Kostrzewa, Daniel Fink, Jacqueline Hess and Jan Harris (taking picture).

DATA DETAILS

October 16, 2010 to March 7, 2013:

The anemometer tower was installed on October 16, 2010. The site is located near the top of Big Baldy, on the saddle just south of the peak and about 400 feet from the high voltage transmission lines that run through the area. This site is located on a open ridge, with some scrub oak and small pines below.

All data is collected using an NRG #40 Calibrated Anemometer and NRG #200 Wind Vane mounted on a tilt-up tower located at a height of 20m. The certification for the anemometer is as follows:

NRG #40C Calibrated Anemometer
Model No.
1900
Serial No.
179500142900
Calibration Date
2/9/2010 2:05:50 p.m.
Slope
0.753 m/s per Hz
Offset
0.38 m/s

Note: An NRG #110S temperature sensor with a radiation shield was installed at a height of 2 m.

This equipment feeds into an NRG Wind Explorer data logger. All data plugs are sent to the Colorado ALP at Colorado State University for analysis. The data plug files and text versions of these files are given below.

Raw Wind Data Files
NRG Data Plug Files
Txt Files
Highest
2 sec
Gust
m/s
Gust
Date/Time
Norwood_3788_2010_1016_1214.A10 Norwood_3788_2010_1016_1214.txt
40
11/21/2010 17:27
Norwood_3788_2010_1214_0303.A10 Norwood_3788_2010_1214_0303.txt
36
12/21/2010 11:35
Norwood_3788_2011_0303_0601.A11 Norwood_3788_2011_0303_0601.txt
40
5/29/2011 13:04
Norwood_3788_2011_0601_1009.A11 Norwood_3788_2011_0601_1009.txt
35
10/5/2011 23:18
Norwood_3788_2011_1009_0305.A11 Norwood_3788_2011_1009_0305.txt
34
11/18/2011 18:56
Norwood_3788_2012_0305_0603.a12 Norwood_3788_2012_0305_0603.txt
37
3/6/2012 18:11
Norwood_3788_2012_0603_0830.A12 Norwood_3788_2012_0603_0830.txt
27
6/9/2012 7:51
Norwood_3788_2012_0830_0927.A12 Norwood_3788_2012_0830_0927.txt
28
9/23/2012 11:42
Norwood_3788_2012_0927_1011.A12 Norwood_3788_2012_0927_1011.txt
24
10/4/2012 22:30
Norwood_3788_2012_1011_0307.A12 Norwood_3788_2012_1011_0307.txt
42
1/10/2013 23:40

It is important to note that these are the raw files without any compensation for offset. It is also important to note that the temperature was not recorded during this period.

Note that the temperature sensor stopped functioning properly on April 5, 2012 until it was reconnected by a crew from Harness Energy on June 3, 2012. The data from this period was deleted so as to not impact the wind resource calculations. The sensor failed periodically until it was replaced at about 18:10 on 10/12/2012.

Using this data, an analysis of the wind resource report was developed using Windographer 3.0.11. For this data an offset of +326° was applied to the wind vane data. This data was flagged for icing in two ways:

  1. Any wind speed data where the wind speed was less than 0.5 m/s at a temperature less than 0°C for 2 hours or more was flagged and not included in the wind resource analysis calculations
  2. Any wind direction data where the wind direction varied by less than 3 degrees at a temperature less than 0°C for 2 hours or more was flagged and not included in the wind resource analysis calculations

A summary report, the combined data files (with and without the validation analysis), and the Windographer files (with and without the validation analysis) are given below:

Interim Wind Resource Summary

Highlights of the wind resource to date at this site are shown below:

Data Properties
Variable
Data Set Starts:
10/16/2010 14:40 MST
Height above ground (m)
30
Data Set Ends:
3/7/2012 11:30
10-min. mean wind speed (m/s)
5.837
Data Set Duration:
29 months
10-min median wind speed (m/s)
4.470
Length of Time Step:
10 minutes
10-min min. wind speed (m/s)
0.38
Elevation:
9,017 ft/2,748 m
10-min max wind speed (m/s)
30.62
Mean air density (kg/m³):
0.911
10-min standard deviation (m/s)
4.474
Wind Power Coefficients
Weibull k
1.357
Power Density at 50m:
371 W/m²
Weibull c (m/s)
6.385
Wind Power Class:
3 (Fair)
Mean power density (W/m²)
306
Wind Shear Coefficients
Mean energy content (kWh/m²/yr)
2,683
Power Law Exponent:
0.117
Mean turbulence intensity
0.18
Surface Roughness:
0.01 m
Energy pattern factor
3.390
Roughness Class:
0.78
Total data elements
502,772
Roughness Description:
Rough Pasture
Flagged wind speed data elements
198
Flagged direction data elements
9,496
Missing data elements
8,657
Data recovery rate (%)
98.3
Note: The wind power density and wind power class at 50m are projections of the data from 30m. A surface roughness of 0.01 meters was assumed for this projection. This is the surface roughness for a rough pasture. This value was then used this to calculate the roughness class and the power law exponent shown above.

 

Vertical Wind Shear, Height (m) vs Mean Wind Speed (m/s)

 

Wind Energy Rose at 30 meters

 

Wind Frequency Rose at 30 meters

 

Daily Wind Speed Profile, Hourly Mean Wind Speed at 30 meters (m/s) vs. Hour of the Day

 

Seasonal Wind Speed Profile, Monthly Mean Wind Speed at 30 meters (m/s) vs. Month

 

Probability Distribution Function at 30 meters: Frequency (%) vs. Wind Speed (m/s)

Windographer was used to match up the wind at this site with the performance curves of some common turbines of various sizes and various heights. The table below shows the results. For the larger turbines, the tower height was increased to account for the larger turbine blades - the wind resource was extrapolated to these higher heights. Keep in mind that the larger and the higher the turbine, the better the wind and the greater the output. But of course, as the tower heights and turbine sizes increase so does the cost.

Keep in mind too that listing a particular turbine doesn't imply an endorsement - not does it imply that installing a particular turbine model is feasible or recommended for a particular site. For consistency, the larger turbines are included even at sites that where they may not be practical so that one can compare the relative production of different sites.

 

Turbine
Rotor
Diameter
meters
Rotor
Power
kW
Hub
Height
meters
Hub
Height
Wind
Speed
m/s
Time
At
Zero
Output
percent
Time
At
Rated
Output
percent
Average
Net
Power
Output
kW
Average
Net
Energy
Output
kWh/yr
Average
Net
Capacity
Factor
%

Northern Power 100-21 - 121 ft tower (37m)

21
100
37 5.99 15.6 0.0 18.8 164,900 18.8

Vestas V100 - 2.6 MW - 246 ft tower (75m)

70.5
2,600
75 6.50 28.0 5.0 643.2 5,634,700 24.7

GE 1.5-77 - 262 ft tower (80m)

82.5
1,500
80 6.55 28.9 7.0 387.2 3,391,500 25.8

Vestas V90 - 1.8 MW 60 Hz - 262 ft tower (80m)

100
1,815
80 6.55 43.0 11.3 465.3 4,075,600 25.6

Vestas V100 - 1.8 MW 60Hz - 262 ft tower (80m)

90
1,815
80 6.55 23.2 12.1 535.0 4,686,400 29.5

Vestas V100 - 2.0 MW - 262 ft tower (80m)

90
2,000
80 6.55 28.7 3.6 554.3 4,855,700 27.7

Vestas V112 - 3.0 MW - 276 ft tower (84m)

90
3,075
84 6.59 28.5 9.1 835.2 7,316,600 27.2

GE 2.5-100 - 279 ft tower (85m)

90
2,500
85 6.60 28.6 11.4 686.5 6,013,400 27.5

Siemens SWT-3.6-120 - 296 ft tower (90m)

100
3,600
90 6.64 28.4 0.0 812.9 7,121,200 22.6

IMPORTANT: No turbine losses are included in the power, energy, and capacity factor values in the table. Typically, turbine losses can be 5-20% to account for maintenance downtime, icing/soiling and losses from other turbines in a wind farm. Users wanting to be conservative in the performance projections should multiply the power, energy, and capacity values by (1- % losses) to account for these losses.


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Last updated: June 2009
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