USA - Online wind speed data 'a gold mine'

Wind speed data recorded from five Illinois counties, including Knox, Henry and McDonough, can now be accessed online. While big wind energy developers tend to keep such information guarded, the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs and Western Illinois University's Geography department want to share their information with the world. "We want to make the data available to developers and others to do feasibility studies," said Roger Brown, the wind program coordinator with IIRA. "We also hope to make a state-wide map showing wind speeds, but that likely won't be until year three. The other thing we're investigating right now is being able to utilize the data to put it in a model to best determine how much energy would be generated. I think we can do that on our Web site, too, and that's what we're investigating right now.

"It's a gold mine," Brown said of the wind data. Brown said meteorological towers have been erected and are recording data at the Hillcrest Nursing facility in Henry County, on an Abingdon farmer's property in Knox County and at the WIU Horn Campus facility in McDonough County. Additional towers also are taking readings in Coles and Christian counties. Site location, local terrain and physical features influence wind quality, and speeds should be taken at approximately the same height as a proposed turbine, Brown said. Data is being collected at heights ranging from 165 feet to 295 feet.

The five sites were chosen from among 55 applications from 32 counties state-wide. The Henry County Board requested the Hillcrest site, which sits halfway between Geneseo and Cambridge. The city of Abingdon filed the application for its tower, also. Brown said the portable towers will remain at their current sites until about May 1, 2006, when they will be dismantled and reassembled at other locations throughout the state. The towers will be moved two more times during the three-year study, Brown said, adding he continues to receive additional applications. The only current exception is the equipment at WIU that is mounted at 90 meters on a communication tower. That equipment will remain throughout the study. A $419,000 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation made the study possible. Hosting the tower and wind measuring equipment cost the landowners nothing, Brown said. He is looking for additional opportunities to place the equipment on existing communication towers.