Can a wind farm be installed anywhere?
No. Finding the right site for a wind farm takes a lot of work, and Pacific Hydro works closely with landholders and local communities to identify and then check the perfect site is available. The windmills need very careful placement. How’s your maths? The energy content of the wind can be calculated by working out the cube (the third power) of the wind speed. Twice as much wind yields 8 times the energy (i.e. 23 = 2 x 2 x 2 = 8). The short answer is that wind farm developers aim to place windmills in the most windy areas they can find. The roughness of the terrain (including the terrain surface, its contours, and the presence of buildings, trees, plants, and bushes) affects the local wind speed. Very rough terrain, or nearby large obstacles, may create turbulence, which decreases energy production and increases wear and tear on the generators. Predicting the annual energy production from a windmill is quite a complex task. It requires detailed maps of the area and accurate meteorolog
