I Used a Power Predictor Anemometer: A Case Study

After getting through some hard times in the last few years on his large farm near North Berwick in Scotland, Gus is cautious about spending too much money on new ventures. “I do want to maximise the potential of my land and assets though – and to diversify as much as possible so that we get back to serious profitability,” he says.

One of the plans that he has been considering seriously for over 12 months now is to scale up his vegetable growing to supply premium quality products to two major supermarket chains for distribution all over Scotland. “We already supply lamb and beef and we want to do something on a large scale with the vegetables. In this remote and exposed location only 2 miles from the coast, that means doing a lot of indoor growing, so power is an important issue. We can’t afford to spend all the profits we are likely to make on keeping the plants warm enough to grow,” he laughs.

Renewable Energy is an Option

With the exposed location being a problem in some ways, it does offer the potential to supply some of the energy for the farm and the new venture using wind power. “The trouble was, wind is one of those things you can’t predict easily and I just didn’t know whether we would be able to generate enough electricity to make it worthwhile investing in the turbines. It was a real dilemma, says Gus.

A chance conversation one day with his local electricity supply company alerted him to a new product that could be the answer to this important dilemma. “I phoned up to ask for advice and got passed round about 6 people, as you do, but then I got to speak to someone who seemed very knowledgeable. He told me about a device called a power predictor that I could buy relatively cheaply and install on a pole in various places on the farm to accurately measure the amount of electricity I was likely to generate using wind power,” explains Gus.

Installing the Power Predictor Anemometer

Having found a supplier, Gus bought two power predictors in the end to halve the amount of time that he needed to run feasibility tests. “I have a couple of farm workers so it was no problem for us to set up the testing platforms – in reality quite simple 6 foot poles – and we fixed up the power predictors and recording device and then just left it to run. After a week’s trial, we collected the data and then set up another test in a different part of the farm. In total we did 4 weeks of trials and had 8 sets of data to assess,” says Gus.

With the help of a consultant recommended by the local electricity board, Gus and his wife Dora then spent about 2 days going through the data using software that came with the power predictor. “It was hard work at the time but what we got out of it was a fairly accurate prediction that showed we could easily make enough electricity from the wind power around the farm, but we had to place the wind turbines at the four best locations in order to do it,” he adds.

Going Renewable

Over the next few months, plans went full steam ahead and by the start of the following spring, the new and expensive wind turbines had been installed, to feed not only the 10 giant poly tunnels and new indoor growing houses, but also all of the barns, outbuildings and main farm house. “We knew that we were capable of producing the power and we are delighted that the feasibility study worked so well. We are now in a position to run a profitable business – and we are even earning a feed in tariff for feeding our excess power back into the national grid. I couldn’t be more please; the power predictor anemometer was one of the best ‘gadgets’ I have ever invested in,” concludes Gus.

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