Renewable Energy Solar Panels and Wind Turbines
LEADING THE WAY WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY
Resource Assessments and Performance Monitoring
Resource Assessments
The performance of most renewable energy technologies is dependent on the climate – the amount of sun, the temperature or the wind speed.
It is possible to predict fairly accurately the average temperature or the amount of sunshine over a year in any location. This means the performance of solar systems and heat pumps can be accurately estimated.
However, the performance of a wind turbine is very dependent on the wind speed and this can be affected by very local obstructions such as trees or nearby buildings. Although average wind speed data is available from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (formerly the DTI) NOABL database these are only yearly averages for a 1 km2 grid and do not give accurate data for a specific location.
Installing a wind turbine is a considerable investment and where there is uncertainty about wind speed at a given site, it may be prudent to consider monitoring wind speeds before coming to a final decision about whether or not to proceed with an installation.
We offer a cost-effective monitoring package for wind speed assessment. Generally we recommend monitoring a site for 12 months, although this can be reduced to six months in some circumstances. After the monitoring has been completed we will give a recommendation on whether or not to proceed with the installation of a turbine.
Performance Monitoring
Renewable energy systems represent a considerable investment and owners may wish to monitor the performance of the system for a number of reasons.
We can offer monitoring packages for all our renewable energy systems. Our monitoring packages range from simple energy monitoring which we provide as standard on all our systems, to remote monitoring using dedicated data-loggers and GSM links for fault notification.
We also offer a monitoring package for our solar PV and wind energy systems which is specially designed for schools and universities.
