USA - Expert explains how mapping enables wind farms across the U.S

Bailey is the president of AWS Truewind LLC, a $4 million, 22-year-old company that is nearly as invisible in the Capital Region as is the subject of its maps and measurements. AWS Truewind, located in Albany NanoTech, is one of the companies behind the Maple Ridge Wind Farm on the Tug Hill Plateau in Lewis County, a $350 million project that will generate 900 megawatt hours of power a year with 195 turbines spread out over 1,500 acres. The Tug Hill project has been labeled the largest wind power project east of the Mississippi, but Patrick Doyle, director of development for Horizon Wind Energy, the Houston-based co-developer of the project, said it's bigger than that.

Bailey suggested the company reconsider, and after further inspection of the site, Horizon Wind upped the project by $270 million, which required building a larger transmission line to handle the increased load. "We kind of work side by side," said Mark Scher, president of MSE Power Systems, which has worked on 18 percent of the wind power projects in North America in the past six years. He considers AWS Truewind one of the top wind consultants in the country. Other competitors in-clude Global Energy Concepts LLC of Kirkland, Washington, and Garrad Hassan & Partners Ltd. in San Diego. "They [AWS Truewind] are one of the most respected wind consultancies in the busi-ness," said Kevin Schulte, vice president of Sustainable Energy Developments Inc., located just outside of Rochester.
The natural gas crisis is playing a part in increased wind energy projects. MSE Power Systems, which expects two-thirds of its business--$21 million--to come from wind; and GE Energy, which has employees working on wind turbine technology at both GE Energy in Schenectady and GE Global Research in Niskayuna.