A significant amount of information on wind energy sites exists in the United States.  Most of this material applies to the mass production of wind power (multi-million dollar wind farms) or the micro production of wind energy for a single household.   The reason for the lack of material regarding mid-sized installations probably involves the economies of scale evident in wind turbine production.  Currently, the larger the wind facility being constructed, the lesser the capital required per kW/MW hour of production.  Because of this cost, we see several large scale wind farm developments and individual home enthusiasts but very few small/medium (sub $1,000,000 entry capital) wind farms.  This result is probably due to the high, if not non-existent, return on investment for medium sized wind installations.  Over the next few articles, I hope to cover several aspects on how small business could do well with medium sized wind installations.  In fact the business of Dreamcatcher Industries Inc (the owner and operators of Greenpowersource.net) is the research and development of small to mid-sized wind energy projects.  The next few articles will outline many of the considerations and pitfalls we encountered in the site selection for a small wind farm.

The first and primary consideration for any and all wind farms is the site economics.  I won't go into in-depth detail of these items in this article as the information here is more along the lines of general business planning than wind energy production.  Several aspects go into the economics of a specific wind site including wind strength analysis, location costs, accessibility, utilities, and regulations/permitting.  Wind strength should be analyzed on a micro and macro level and the analysis applied to the overall plan (we will cover this in depth later).  The next step to consider is location cost(s).  In many cases, it may be beneficial to purchase the property that on which the farm will be placed.  However, leases can be particularly appealing in high wind zones where little land is available.  Along the same lines, site accessibility should be reviewed.  Does the site have a road?  If not, make sure to budget for additional construction.  Next, make sure to take note of the distance from your headquarters as well as the transportation overhead involved in remote construction and operation of a wind farm.  Lastly, regulations and permitting differ greatly between states and locality; therefore, all potential locations should be researched regarding distributed power generation, zoning, and structure height restrictions.  All financial aspects of a potential wind site should be evaluated prior to purchasing or leasing, as these can weigh heavily on your return on investment.

The selection of a wind zone can greatly impact the plan for a wind farm.  A high wind zone can afford higher property costs, faster returns on investment, and open up options for future growth.   There are many free resources available on the internet to aid in determining the wind speeds of particular parts of the country.   The government provides several maps through FEMA (http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/saferoom/tsfs02_wind_zones.shtm) and the US Department of Energy (http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_maps.asp).  Current up-to-the day wind maps can be obtained from Weather Underground (http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/Midwest/WindSpeed.html), and very detailed high resolution maps are available through 3tier (http://www.3tier.com/firstlook/).  Ideally, the higher the wind zone, the better.  A big caveat to this logic is that very high speeds or gusts (50+ mph) can actually reduce power generation as most towers shut down at these speeds.  These wind speeds are generally only found on mountain tops, tornado zones, and hurricane zones.  When evaluating the future placement of a wind power device, the single most important factor to consider is the wind zone.

In the next article, I will try to cover some information and sources regarding micro site evaluation and dealing with obstructions.

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