Assessing the wind resource is a critical step in wind energy project development. Whether a regional-scale using existing wind data and electronic wind maps, or a site specific scale using onsite measurement equipment, the process includes the collection of meteorological data, processing, and developing estimates of the long-term wind resource at candidate sites.

Early in its business history, VERA developed hands-on experience with specifying, permitting, installing, and operating wind monitoring equipment in the harsh mountain-top environs of the northeast, along with processing and statistical analysis of the wind data collected. VERA recognized the need for 'heated' anemometers in the early 1980s, and finding none commercially available, fabricated its own. These provided the basis for the first reliable year-round wind resource assessment for Green Mountain Power Corporation's wind program, leading to the development of the Searsburg Project in 1994.

Since these early experiences, wind resource assessment has come a long way. Today, VERA performs wide-area site screening with wind resource maps and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from as far west as Texas and Wyoming to West Virginia northward through Maine. Our experience with computer processing of vast amounts of wind resource and other environmental data is the most efficient way of identifying areas where on-site measurements are warranted.

As well as data collected from measurement stations and summarized monthly reports, periodic long-term wind and energy production estimates are completed for use in project design work and financial modeling.