Seattle-based 3TIER has launched its Portfolio Climate Variability Analysis (Portfolio CVA) in response to wind energy developers with large networks of met towers who need a low-cost, rapid turnaround product to accelerate the decision-making process about where to build. By enabling developers to put observational data into a long-term climatological perspective, Portfolio CVA reduces uncertainty about a location's wind energy value, according to the company.
‘Portfolio CVA was developed at the request of one of our key customers, Horizon Wind Energy, which has an enormous development pipeline and maintains hundreds of met towers,’ says Kenneth Westrick, CEO and founder of 3TIER. ‘When you are doing wind energy assessment on Horizon's scale, you need a more nimble, scalable solution that enables you to monitor the long-term, climate-adjusted performance of your entire network of sites from month to month.’
Portfolio CVA is fully automated and can be deployed across portfolios of met towers ranging in size from several to several hundred, with observational data of varying durations within the portfolio.
Every month Portfolio CVA takes the most recent month's observational data for each location and compares that data to a 10-year-plus numerical weather prediction model simulation for each location. It then returns the raw 10-year-plus, model-run data, as well as the model-run data corrected using the observational data for each location.
This analysis helps developers understand how the wind regime measured during a limited observational period compares to the long-term wind regime that should be expected at the site, according to 3TIER.
As a result, developers are able to predict future megawatt potential and identify the locations with the most robust wind energy. Monthly updates allow developers to easily examine the sensitivity of changes that occur with each month of data.
Westrick says that 3TIER worked closely with Horizon to develop, test and deploy Portfolio CVA. Horizon is using Portfolio CVA on the majority of its meteorological tower fleet, as well as for operational studies on installed production capacity.
For more information, visit 3tiergroup.com.
SOURCE: 3TIER
