Sinsinawa
Spectrum
A Congregation News Magazine
Wind Turbine Test Tower Installed at Mound
by Sara Trapkus, Sinsinawa Mound General Operations Officer
For years, the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters have been interested in providing renewable energy and finding ways to reduce our carbon footprint at Sinsinawa Mound.
A wind energy site assessment was performed for Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy Renewable Energy Program on July 16, 2007, by Energize, LLC, which determined that there was a spot in the southwest corner of our property that appeared to be conducive for significant wind-generated power at the Mound. We also learned that the wind energy derived from an appropriate sized wind turbine could pay our entire yearly electric budget. Since that time, we have been working with meteorologists and wind energy companies and have applied for a grant from Focus on Energy to construct a test tower in order to further study the possibility of installing a wind turbine at the Mound.
On June 30, 2009, we were notified that the Focus on Energy program had chosen us to receive a wind resource monitoring, assessment, and large wind turbine performance evaluation grant in the amount of $11,300. After receiving bids from three wind energy companies, we chose Seventh Generation Energy Systems, Inc., of Madison, from which to purchase a wind energy test tower. They installed the 187-foot tower on July 31, 2009, in the location originally chosen by the wind assessment study performed two years earlier. The tower and its guide wires occupy approximately one acre of land on an alfalfa field in the southwest corner of our property. There are six anemometers on the tower to monitor wind speed, two wind vanes to monitor wind direction, and a temperature sensor located at the base of the tower. The anemometers are mounted at three different heights to record the increase in wind speeds with the increase in elevation. At each level, two anemometers are oriented into the predominant wind directions; south and northwest. A logger at the base of the tower records all of the data received by the sensors every two seconds. The data is averaged every ten minutes and is not only stored on site, but is also sent to Seventh Generation Energy Systems to check the quality of the data and to assure that all of the sensors are functioning properly. At the end of a 12-month period, a meteorologist will analyze all of the collected data and present us with a report which will tell us whether or not we should install a wind turbine and the appropriate size of turbine we need to accomplish our desired outcome. Also at that time, the test tower will be removed with no evidence remaining in the alfalfa field where it now sits. We can then sell our used tower to someone else who is interested in wind energy.
We are very excited about the prospect of wind energy at the Mound. If the findings of the wind energy test tower are positive, we will continue to pursue the acquisition of a wind turbine to provide electricity and promote renewable energy in our area.