Wind Today

Manassas, VA--Catch the Wind Ltd. recently announced the successful completion of its field trial program with Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD).

Under the trial program, the Vindicator(R) Laser Wind Sensor (LWS) significantly increased power output and simultaneously reduced the off-axis stress loads of the NPPD test turbine, as demonstrated by third-party instrumentation provided by SWANtech's SWANwind(TM) Condition Monitoring System.

Based on the results, NPPD will be finalizing the purchase of the Vindicator(R) LWS unit.

"Consistent with our expectations, the Vindicator Laser Wind Sensor's forward wind measurement capabilities were able to improve the alignment of a turbine against the oncoming wind and thus significantly increased power output while reducing equipment stress loads," said Phil Rogers, President and CEO, Catch the Wind Ltd.

"The encouraging results of our field trial with Nebraska Public Power District provide further validation of the benefits our technology offers to wind farm operators and turbine manufacturers."

"With our long association with NPPD providing unique measurements of stress loads on their entire fleet of turbines at Ainsworth, we were pleased to serve as the validating technology for the Vindicator trial," said Tony Amato, President, SWANtech, a business unit of Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Company.

"Compared to traditional condition monitoring, SWANtech was able to confirm a noticeable reduction in stress loads (SWE(TM)) on the wind turbine drive train.

"Along with reductions in SWE, SWANtech was able to confirm differences in yaw position and blade pitch angle, which resulted in a noted increase in power on the turbine outfitted with the Vindicator system, when compared to the adjacent turbines on same ridge that were simultaneously monitored for the trial.

"Reductions in stress loads, increases in operational efficiencies as well as the potential of higher power output make the initial results of this trial very exciting."

As reported previously, Catch the Wind and NPPD agreed to a trial program, which commenced in July 2009, to evaluate how using forward measurement of wind speed and direction can optimally align wind turbines with the approaching wind and reduce the off-axis stress loads on turbines.

A beta production model of the Company's Vindicator(R) Laser Wind Sensor (LWS) unit was integrated with the control system of a working Vestas turbine located at NPPD's Ainsworth Wind Energy Facility located near Ainsworth, Nebraska.

The facility has 36 large wind turbines, each capable of generating up to 1.65 megawatts of energy, for a combined total of 59.4 megawatts.

Catch the Wind is focused on making wind energy more profitable.

The company is commercializing new technology that is designed to improve the performance of a turbine through the effective forward measurement of the wind, resulting in more energy production and reduced maintenance costs.

See Related Websites/Articles:

• Catch the Wind
• Swantech

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