PROGRAM INFORMATION

ESTES PARK - 9/16/2008 to 9/16/2011

DATA DETAILS

September 16, 2008 to September 16, 2011:

An anemometer and wind vane were installed at the top of a 60 foot light pole above the softball fields in the Town of Estes Park on September 16, 2008 and were removed exactly three years later on September 16, 2011. The site was located near the fairgrounds. Prospect Mountain lies about 1.3 miles west and provided a large obstruction for wind in the town. Winds were expected to funnel down from about Longs Peak and Rocky Mountain National Park and down the valley from the west side of town. Lake Estes is about 0.2 miles north of the site.

All data was collected using an NRG #40 Anemometer and NRG #200 Wind Vane. The wind vane was mounted on a 43 inch boom to clear it from the obstructions caused by the lights on the pole. This equipment fed into an NRG Wind Explorer data logger. All data plugs were be sent to the Colorado ALP at Colorado State University for analysis. The data plug files and text versions of these files are given below.

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.

Using this data, an analysis of the wind resource report was developed using Windographer 1.49. For this data an offset of +49° was applied to the wind vane data. For this report, a validation analysis was performed on the data. This data was filtered two ways:

1. Any wind speed data where the wind speed was less than 1 mph for 5 hours or more was deleted.
2. Any wind direction data where the wind direction varied by less than 3 degrees over 6 hours was deleted

Windographer was then used to add in synthetic data to these intervals with suspect data. 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:

• Estes_Park_4005_2008_0916_to_2011_0916_Summary_Report.pdf
• Estes_Park_4005_2008_0916_to_2011_0916_without_data_validation.windog
• Estes_Park_4005_2008_0916_to_2011_0916_without_data_validation.txt
• Estes_Park_4005_2008_0916_to_2011_0916_with_data_validation_offset_49.windog
• Estes_Park_4005_2008_0916_to_2011_0916_with_data_validation_offset_49.txt

Final Wind Resource Summary

Highlights of the final wind resource assessment at this site are shown below:

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.

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.

For Larimer County Residents:

County zoning codes limit the height of any structure to 40 feet unless a zoning variance is approved. Using the surface roughness and power law exponent given above, Windographer was used to project the wind speed at 40 feet (12.2m). At this height, the average wind speed is 9.21 mph and the wind power density is about 109 W per square meter of wind swept area. For residents looking to install small scale wind turbines, the table below provides the expected performance of typical home-scale wind turbines at 40 feet, WITHOUT ACCOUNTING FOR ANY TURBINE LOSSES:

Note that the table includes the expected performance from the Mariah Power Windspire vertical axis turbine using specification available from the manufacturer and from the results of a partial test that was conducted at the National Wind Technology Center near Boulder.

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