Prepping for wind power

[Matka Kyla]

I live 4.5km from the sea and it's windy almost all year round, but I want to find out the numbers. Looking for a setup to log wind speeds all year round. I have found this (https://www.windlogger.eu/collections/data-wind-speed-logger-kits/products/windtrackerlogger), but maybe there's a more affordable option?

[Rob Beckers]

Matka, on the cheap end of the spectrum would be a simple "weather station" with a anemometer. Something like this (https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00622-Weather-Temperature-Humidity/dp/B00N2KWTXQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1488034145&sr=8-2&keywords=weather+station+wind). Though, you'd want to check that it can log to a file so you can read it into Excel or some such, to analyze.

It's rare that people put up an anemometer to log wind speeds for a small wind turbine. The usual is to go by weather data for the area, or computer (re)analysis that shows wind speeds. I don't know for your location, but data is available for a number of countries. Some of it very good (computer re-analysis that calculates wind data for various heights based on measured values over a wide area and time is pretty accurate!).

-RoB-

[Matka Kyla]

Matka, on the cheap end of the spectrum would be a simple "weather station" with a anemometer. Something like this (https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00622-Weather-Temperature-Humidity/dp/B00N2KWTXQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1488034145&sr=8-2&keywords=weather+station+wind). Though, you'd want to check that it can log to a file so you can read it into Excel or some such, to analyze.

It's rare that people put up an anemometer to log wind speeds for a small wind turbine. The usual is to go by weather data for the area, or computer (re)analysis that shows wind speeds. I don't know for your location, but data is available for a number of countries. Some of it very good (computer re-analysis that calculates wind data for various heights based on measured values over a wide area and time is pretty accurate!).

-RoB-

Where could I get information about wind speed data? I am from Estonia, looked at local weather sites, and the closest measuring station is 30km from me but that's practically right next to the sea and doesn't have an archive.

[Rob Beckers]

Try IRENA: http://irena.masdar.ac.ae/?&tool=dtu:gwa&map=103

This is a worldwide wind database. You can zoom in on your location and depending on where you are there may be more or less information available. The wind speed data is likely for a height that's well above where a small turbine resides, you can convert those numbers to other heights; I don't have the equation handy but I'm sure you can find it on the Internet (accuracy depends on how "rough" your surface is).

Some countries keep wind data for airports, usually normalized to 10 meters height. Another good source.

-RoB-