July 26, 2011
Nova Scotia

Wind field company installing tower on Browns Mountain to check conditions

Amy Reusch, www.ngnews.ca 26 July 2011

MERGOMISH – Northumberland Wind Field will erect a tower to assess the wind at its proposed site in Avondale.

Sharon Henderson, president of the wind field, said a 60-metre meteorological tower will be installed in the next couple of weeks. The location of the site is off Barney’s River Road on the western side of Browns Mountain.

“It’s a big step forward for us,” said Henderson. “Before you can put a wind turbine on a site you have to check the wind, what the wind is like and what size of a machine it will take.”

Henderson made the announcement at an information session the company held Monday night at Merigomish Fire Hall.

Kirk Schmidt, of Al-Pro Wind Energy Consulting Canada, will co-ordinate the installation of the tower and collect data from its instruments.

Schmidt said the tower is eight inches in diameter and has three booms at different heights that house the instruments that will collect data. Information will be recorded every 10 minutes to a data logger that Schmidt will download.

“Typically we leave it up for a year to get the full range of wind conditions throughout the seasons,” he said.

Henderson said the data collected from the tower, combined with data from the Glen Dhu wind farm, located on the eastern side of Browns Mountain, will be a key component in its business plan.

Northumberland Wind Field is also submitting its application for a community based feed-in tariff.

“As soon as our application is accepted and we get the COMFIT rate,” said Henderson, adding the wind farm is guaranteed $139 per megawatt-hour. “We automatically will receive a power purchase agreement.”
Henderson said the Northumberland Wind Field will be having a share offering this fall. She said the company has raised more than a third of a million dollars in capital.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/07/26/wind-field-company-installing-tower-on-browns-mountain-to-check-conditions/