Page 345 - Fluid Power Engineering

Planning and Execution of W ind Projects 305

towers are tilt-up with no foundation, decommissioning in-
volves disassembly and transportation of the met-tower.
Detailed wind assessment. Onsite wind measurement data is

processed in software programs like WindPRO and Wind-
Farmer, as described in Chapter 6. Methods like measure-
correlate-predict are used to determine long-term wind speed
average. This process may be done once a quarter to check cor-
relations with one or more long-term reference wind speed
data series. In some situations, quarterly reports may provide
the basis for a go/no-go decision; if the wind conditions are
not up to par, the project may then be aborted. In addition,
measurements from multiple locations may be used to de-
velop a wind flow model that interpolates and extrapolates
windspeedanddirectionovertheentireareaofinterest.Atthe
end of a measurement campaign, detailed data about: Wind
speed, wind shear, energy density, energy production, wind
direction, turbulence, air density, and others are computed. In
addition, estimates of uncertainties are computed. Since tur-
bine selection may not be completed, the above computations
are made with several turbine power curves. The duration of
this task is about 2 to 4 weeks.
Detailed financial assessment. Pro forma financial assessment

is generated to determine the financial performance of the
project. At this stage, most of the revenue and cost numbers
used in this assessment may be estimates; however, the es-
timates should be site-specific and not generic industry av-
erages. (See Chapter 13 for details.) Duration of this task is
about 2 weeks.
Detailed project plan. No business plan is complete without a

detailed project plan, that consists of tasks, timeframes, mile-
stones, deliverables, and decision points. The project plan
should be updated regularly to reflect new realities and new
information.

The outcome of the wind measurement and detailed wind assess-
ment stage is a business plan that is taken to investors or investment
committees to fund the subsequent phases of the project.
Project Siting, Interconnection, and PPA
In this step, a broad range of tasks are performed to clear regulatory
and environmental hurdles related to siting of a wind project. This
step is very locale-specific starting with the environmental features at
the proposed site, to regulatory and compliance requirements of local,
state, and federal governments. Therefore, the effort and timeframe
for this step is highly variable. The tasks involved in this step include: