US Wind Goes Local with Met Tower Works

US Wind has selected two Baltimore-based companies for a range of specialized services related to the fabrication and installation of a meteorological tower necessary for environment activity monitoring at its proposed offshore wind farm in Maryland, US.

US Wind contracted Strum Contracting Company (SCC) to provide welding services for the installation of the meteorological tower, while Maritime Applied Physics Corporation (MAPC) will be in charge of the procurement and installation of instrumentation and power equipment for the tower.

SCC will also provide quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) services of the steel foundation fabrication activity to ensure construction and welding of the structure is of the highest level and in accordance with the US industry standards, as well as welding services in support of improvements to the port of Baltimore necessary to sustain the infrastructure for the increased maritime business activity generated by the offshore wind project, US Wind said.

In addition, MAPC will procure and install sensors to be placed on the steel lattice meteorological tower for wind measurement, wind direction, air temperature, air pressure, precipitation, relative humidity, lightning detection, and bat detection. An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) will also be used to measure water current velocities, while the company will also be responsible for the Collision Avoidance Equipment and the Power System.

According to the company, the data collected through MAPC’s equipment will be used for the final design, financing and a performance warranty of the wind farm.

In March, the US developer signed a contract with Gulf Island Fabrication for the procurement of the meteorological tower and a braced caisson supporting structure.

Located some 17 miles offshore Ocean City, the wind farm will comprise 32 wind turbines generating up to 250MW of energy.

The offshore wind project was approved to receive offshore renewable energy credits (ORECs) in May last year.