Remote sensing system brings vital wind condition data to wind farm operators.

Second Wind, a leading provider of wind measurement technology, software and services, today announced the introduction of a suite of wind farm operations services based on the company's Triton® Sonic Wind Profiler and SkyServe® Wind Data Service. Triton, a remote sensing system using sodar technology to provide wind measurements across the turbine rotor sweep, and SkyServe, a cloud-based data delivery tool, have already been widely adopted by wind farm developers for use in wind resource assessment.

"2011 was a big year for Second Wind as Triton and SkyServe continued to lead the global wind power development market for remote sensing. In addition, working in partnership with several large wind farm operators and utilities, we deployed a large number of Triton in support of wind farm operations," said Larry Letteney, Second Wind CEO.

Wind farms have a number of operating issues that can be explained and resolved based on thorough understanding of the wind conditions onsite. With the rapid global growth of wind energy and improvements in turbine technology, advanced wind information systems are needed to provide more comprehensive information about wind conditions. The applications for Triton on operating wind farms include:

Complementing or replacing expensive hub height reference towers for operational support, compliance, power marketing and improved wind forecasting
Mobile applications providing turbine performance, wake and sector analysis
Complete wind farm assessment for warranty and financial purposes

Second Wind recently expanded into a new 25,000–sq. ft. manufacturing facility near Boston to support the wind industry's growing demand for Triton.

Matt Hendrickson, Senior Director of Energy Assessment at 3TIER, states, "A well-qualified remote sensing system, such as the Triton, can be extremely valuable in assessing wind farm performance. Measuring the vertical structure of the wind profile and relating it to turbine efficiencies goes a long way in explaining varying production patterns. Used properly, this technology will ultimately increase the skill of one's predictive models."

About Second Wind
Second Wind has been a global innovator in advanced technology for wind measurement since 1980. Our sole focus is on supporting the development and operations of the world's wind energy industry. Key innovations include the Nomad® wind data logger and tower systems; Triton® remote sensing systems; and SkyServe® satellite wind data service. Second Wind is headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. For more information on the Triton Sonic Wind Profiler and Second Wind's other product and service offerings, visit www.secondwind.com.