NREL To Research Sodar with Second Wind | Renewable Energy News Article

Massachusetts, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Second Wind Inc. are getting ready to to partner on research that will characterize the performance of Second Wind's Triton Sonic Wind Profiler. Under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), NREL and Second Wind will conduct conduct research that is aimed at correlating the Triton measurements with measurements gathered from a meteorological tower. Once this is complete, the groups will include Triton measurements in the development of a new Wind Instrument Characterization System (WICS) at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) near Boulder, Colorado. The agreement is worth more than US $100,000 over the next three years.

NREL and Second Wind will analyze data gathered from a Triton Sonic Wind Profiler and a nearby meteorological tower during a 6-month correlation study that was completed over the course of the last two years.

The analysis, which is expected to be completed within the next year, will characterize the measurement performance of Triton. Following that step, a Triton will be deployed at the NWTC to collect long-term measurements and compare them to wind resource data being collected from NWTC tall towers.

“This CRADA will give NREL additional experience with the latest tools being used by the industry for wind measurement,” said Dennis Elliott, principal scientist in wind resource assessment at NREL. “This research is vital as the industry moves towards requiring hub height and higher data to reduce uncertainty in the wind resource and turbine performance.”