May 11, 2014 — Best Practices
15 ways to increase risk in wind resource assessments
You read right, the Breeze team has whipped together a list of the 15 most effective ways to increase risk in Wind Resource Assessment. Give it a read to discover common pitfalls you can easily avoid by doing everything right from the start.

Patrick Strom
Sales Manager, Greenbyte
You read right, the Breeze team has whipped together a list of the 15 most effective ways to increase risk in Wind Resource Assessment. Give it a read to discover common pitfalls you can easily avoid by doing everything right from the start.
- Not checking incoming data files daily. Every day of lost data counts. In some countries, a developer’s auction bid can be disqualified for as little as 14 days of missing data in a 2 year period.
- Not backing up daily. Protection of raw data files is critical in case an analysis needs to be redone. There is no way to recreate raw files from text files.
- Over reliance on common desktop programs. These generic programs were never designed for wind energy. They may crash and need updates and patches.
- Over reliance on a single person. Often it's in the IT department “Oh, that is Tom’s job…”.It is a risk to have IT knowledge inside the head of one person. What if they leave the company?
- Falling behind on software versions. E.g. data logger manufacturers’ reading software. These are updated as often as quarterly.
- Falling behind on preparation of weekly and monthly reports. Manual report writing is repetitive, error-prone and time consuming.
- Not reinstrumenting met masts every 2 years. Cup anemometers degrade over time and require replacement or recalibration after 2 years in the field. Check with the manufacturer and note the service interval.
- Lack of awareness about warranty periods. Equipment failures might be covered under warranty, but only if reported within the 1 or 2 year warranty period.
- Losing calibration reports. It is an enormous waste of time to hunt for paper copies or contacting manufacturers to request duplicates.
- Independent contractors taking valuable info with them or copying themselves on data transfer. It is important to control non-company workers with regard to your private data.
- Battery failures due to a lack of monitoring or maintenance mistakes. A simple battery failure can be very costly if a site visit has to be scheduled.
- Poor communication and sharing within the company. Are all colleagues and departments getting the info they need on a timely basis?
- Duplication rather than centralization of raw data. Copying data and sending emails to multiple addresses just multiplies the amount of data and the resulting handling & storage actions.
- Continuing processes which are not scalable. Think ahead a few years about what will happen with twice or triple the number of measurement sites. How many people will have to be hired and trained to do the work?
- Working harder and faster, but not smarter. The title pretty much says it all.
The list would of course not be complete without a solution to the above mentioned pitfalls. It's spelled Breeze Development - Wind Resource Assessment System for easier management with a centralized environment for all your wind measurement projects.