geoAMPS at AWEA Ohio Wind Energy Summit

Attendees can learn about software solutions for wind industry

geoAMPS, a technology company in the Columbus, OH, area, plans to participate in the American Wind Energy Association's Ohio Wind Energy Summit on Sept. 24 at the Hilton Columbus Downtown.


The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reports that this is the organization's first state-focused seminar.

Attendees at the conference will have the opportunity to learn about altAMPS, one of the industry-specific products developed by geoAMPS. altAMPS is designed to meet the needs of organizations in the alternative energy industry.

altAMPS is an industry-leading comprehensive solution for end-to-end management of wind projects. The software product assists wind companies through the development, construction and ongoing operational stages of wind farm projects.

The process and organizational efficiencies, error elimination and measured cost savings possible by utilizing altAMPS provide opportunities for completion of additional wind projects. That translates into more wind capacity in total U.S. electricity generation and advances the nation toward 20 percent of power generation through wind by 2030.

altAMPS is filled with time-saving tools, such as lease management, meteorological tower management, royalty payment calculator, bulk update, automatic reminders, payment tracker and scheduler, workflow and import-export capabilities, all of which make this powerful software invaluable for companies involved in renewable energy. And, it's paperless.

A myriad of complex issues factor into the siting of a wind farm and multiple turbines within a wind farm space. altAMPS helps developers sort through these many issues and arrive at the most optimal siting decisions.

Wind energy industry officials report their number one pain point in managing a wind farm is managing ongoing payments. altAMPS provides the tools needed to meet these ongoing obligations in an accurate and timely fashion. Tools such as royalty payment calculator, lease management and payment tracker and scheduler make that process more efficient. Tasks that once took several days to complete by utilizing multiple spreadsheets can be done automatically and instantaneously with altAMPS. The software also ensures payment accuracy.

altAMPS offers GIS mapping capabilities that provide essential information on the project area. Project planners can receive information on each parcel, including ownership and other title information. They can access a record of topography, existing infrastructure and environmental assessments, and monitor the project area through color-coded maps and layers that provide 3-D visualization.

altAMPS also assists wind companies with the complicated, yet essential process of siting wind farms and individual wind turbines.

The same sophisticated computer process that has been used to engineer the structure of a space satellite antenna and formulate financial trading strategies through multiple scenarios is being utilized by the wind industry to site wind farms and turbines.

Multi-objective adaptive heuristic algorithms are computer instructions that automatically search project criteria and siting issues in an efficient manner to provide wind farm planners a set of near optimal solutions.

Siting a wind farm and individual turbines within the farm is critical to the project's success. Siting, however, is more complex than buying or leasing any available property and placing turbines randomly. There is the availability of regular and considerable wind current to consider. Other issues include environmental and wildlife impacts, land ownership, existing infrastructure, proximity to utility lines, population density, regional land use, topography, and the costs of clearing land and developing access roads.

An article about how altAMPS capitalizes on multi-objective adaptive algorithms to assist in wind siting has been published in the August/September 2013 edition of The Alternative Energy eMagazine under the title "Solving wind farm siting."

geoAMPS' home state of Ohio was one of the top five fastest growing states for wind capacity in 2012, with 313 megawatts (MW) added and more than 54,000 MW in wind resource potential.

Ohio leads the nation in wind-related manufacturing with more than 60 facilities (or more than one in every 10 in the U.S.) producing components for the wind industry.

Learn more by connecting with geoAMPS at the AWEA Ohio Wind Energy Summit in Columbus. Contact Sam Arnold, Business Development Specialist, at 614-489-3871.

Dan Liggett is Communications and Public Relations Manager at geoAMPS, a technology company in the Columbus, OH, area that specializes in software solutions to manage land rights and infrastructure assets. For more information, call 614-389-4871 or visit www.geoamps.com.

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