Baltimore-based offshore wind developer US Wind Inc. has selected two Baltimore firms for a range of specialized services related to the fabrication and installation of a meteorological tower for environmental monitoring of the company’s proposed Maryland offshore wind farm.
Strum Contracting Co., a provider of steel, welding services and light fabrication products, will provide welding services for the installation of the meteorological tower. The tower has sensors used to collect information about the environment, such as wind speed, wind direction and air temperature.
The company will also be providing welding services in support of improvements to the port of Baltimore in order to sustain the infrastructure for the increased maritime business activity generated by the offshore wind project. Strum Contracting will also provide quality assurance and quality control services of the steel foundation fabrication activity.
Maritime Applied Physics Corp. (MAPC) has been contracted for the procurement and installation of instrumentation and power equipment for the meteorological tower.
MAPC is a research and development company known for its advanced hulls; unmanned marine and land vehicles; and motion-compensated land, air and marine vehicle launch-and-recovery systems. The data collected through this equipment will be used for the final design, financing and performance warranty of the wind farm. MAPC will procure and install sensors to be placed on the steel lattice meteorological tower. In addition, an acoustic doppler current profiler will be used to measure water current velocities. MAPC will be also responsible for collision-avoidance equipment and a power system.
US Wind’s project, involving the placement of 32 wind turbines at a distance of 17 miles from the Ocean City shoreline – as far east in its federally designated wind energy area as possible – will have a power output of approximately 250 MW of energy. US Wind was approved to receive offshore renewable energy credits last May.
