University of Minnesota Duluth’s North Shore Wind Study in Full Spin
| By Dan Thiede, The Minnesota Project – January 2008 | spacerspacer | Download case study in PDF |
Northeastern Minnesota is not a region of our state usually touted for its wind resources, but a dedicated group of researchers are beginning to measure what they hope is the North Shore’s hidden wind energy potential. Dr. Michael Mageau, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Minnesota- Duluth and Director of the Center for Sustainable Community Development (CSCD), along with a handful of UMD students, are in the process of providing technical assistance to several community partners to help them assess their individual wind resources.
Mageau and his team are currently measuring the wind for a year, and will use this site-specific wind speed data to create a wind resource map for the entire region. Their data will then allow them to conduct wind development economic feasibility studies for each of their community partners, and determine the direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts for wind development in Southern St. Louis, Lake, and Cook Counties.
Wind data included in the study will come from eight sites along the North Shore. CSCD installed six anemometers with data loggers at Enger Tower, Clover Valley Fire Tower, Finland Fire Tower, Hovland Fire Tower, Lutsen Mountain, ad Grand Marais. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory installed anemometers and is monitoring at Grand Portage, while Northshore Mining’s weather station will be sharing its data from Silver Bay.
Some preliminary data was collected, but much of the first six months of wind monitoring was a bit patchy due to unforeseen complications. They had anemometer cups break in heavy wind, which made their data loggers at those stations record zeros. The anemometers have now been replaced and data collection is in full spin. The other issue they ran into was the theft of a data logger. But Mageau and his team have moved past these setbacks and are excited to get a year’s worth of data from each site: “We were surprised to discover significantly more wind than anyone anticipated,” said Mageau. “After collecting several months of data we have found average wind speeds exceeding 17 mph at several of our windiest sites, and the data is looking quite encouraging!” They expect to be done with the monitoring portion of the project in June or July 2008.
