We are just starting the research process of seeing if we can install a small wind turbine on our 40 acres in Western Wisconsin (St. Croix County) and are looking for all the information and advice we can get. We have been researching met towers but do we necessarily need to measure wind with a met tower for a small installation? They're pretty expensive.

You may also look at this other forum post:
http://windfarmersnetwork.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/26410342/m/4950083274

Hi CJohnson,

This is a great question. Many people looking to install a small wind system, once they find out the expense of performing a detailed wind resource assessment, are dissuaded from moving forward with the process.

My advice to you is to seek out wind resource data that is cheep, or better yet, free. The first source that I recommend for people in the Midwest for free wind resource data is the University of North Dakota. They have a database of wind data from many sites around Wisconsin. Check out their map for Wisconsin to see if there is some data for a location close to your site:

http://www.undeerc.org/wind/winddb/WIwindsites.asp

If their isn’t a site close to your place the next best resource is a Wisconsin Wind Resource Map. You can download on of those from Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy Website:

http://www.focusonenergy.com/page.jsp?pageId=1091

The 30 meter map relates to a height of 98 feet. You can extrapolate the wind speeds up and down from that 98 foot mark based in the height of your proposed turbine tower. Here is the equation that you can use to do that:

Vel. hub ht. = Vel. anem. ht. x (hub ht./anem. ht.)^1/7

This will not be the most accurate method and the true wind resource at the site will be dependent on local topography, ground cover and where buildings are situated in relation to your proposed site. This will allow you to do a rough payback analysis on your turbine to see if it’s an investment you want to move forward with.

Siting your turbine properly in relation to ground cover, buildings, and other factors check out this article on siting small wind turbines on Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy website:

http://www.focusonenergy.com/embed.jsp?pageId=1588

Also please feel free to post again or else contact me directly with follow up questions! Thanks for your interest in wind energy!

-Brian

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Brian Antonich,