by Melissa Newland
A new meteorological mast for the purpose of testing wind resources has been erected at 17193 High Point Road leading to Mount Arvon in L’Anse Township. This is apparently the third mast that has been put up in the area, with one of the other two locations at 18255 Mount Curwood Road and the third location at 17300 Black Bear Road. According to Catherine Andrews, who is on the L’Anse Township Planning Commission, 13 new locations have been added to the original 120 sites, with the new ones around the Herman area and one near Shepard. According to L’Anse Township Building Inspector Don Mleko, the company responsible for the wind test masts is Renewable Energy Systems Americas, Inc (RES Americas) based in Broomfield, CO. Mleko stated the company is leasing the properties from Weyerhauser, formerly Plum Creek Timber Company. It is standard practice to utilize meteorological masts to measure wind data for a potential future wind farm. High-quality data from a site is a key requirement for optimizing the design of the wind farm, predicting the future energy production of the wind farm and also as an input to selecting the type of wind turbines for a particular wind farm. A wind turbine obtains its power input by converting the force of the wind into torque acting on the rotor blades. The amount of energy which the wind transfers to the rotor depends on the density of the air, the rotor area, and the wind speed. To read more, subscribe to the L’Anse Sentinel online, or buy a print copy at our local retailers.