MAREC Launches WindSentinel in Lake Michigan (USA)

AXYS Technologies Inc. congratulates Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Centre (MAREC) on the deployment of their first WindSentinel™ wind resource assessment buoy.

The WindSentinel™ will be used to help conduct a comprehensive Great Lakes wind assessment review that features offshore wind assessment and related environmental studies on Lake Michigan. The buoy will provide near real-time wind data at six heights up to 150m and allow MAREC to gain a better understanding of offshore wind energy, as well as other physical, biological and environmental conditions on the Great Lakes.

 “This is the first time this laser wind sensing technology is being used on a floating platform in the Great Lakes,” said Arn Boezaart, director of MAREC. “The WindSentinel will provide real-time, in-the-water data using the most advanced wind testing equipment. The flexibility and mobility of the buoy compared to constructing a fixed meteorological tower will provide a new level of research capability.”

The WindSentinel was constructed at the AXYS facility in Sidney, BC Canada over the last several months. The core sensing technology is Catch the Wind’s Vindicator®, which is a second-generation laser wind sensor that gathers data on wind speed, wind direction and turbulence at turbine hub-height and across the blade span.

Following a week of tests on Muskegon Lake, the WindSentinel™ will move four miles offshore on Lake Michigan for a month long trial.

AXYS Technologies, Inc. designs, manufactures, distributes and maintains remote environmental data acquisition, processing and telemetry systems.

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Source: axystechnologies, October 04, 2011