UIB study identifies potential wind farm site

Joan Collins THE Costas de Xorrigo, on the Manacor road in Majorca, could be a potential site for a wind farm, at least from the energy point of view, according to a study by members of the Meteorological Group of the Physics department of the Balearic University (UIB). This prediction is one of the results which the project has given. The project studied the layer of the atmosphere nearest to the earth to try to identify the details of the Balearic climate to determine the best placed areas to, for example, install a wind farm or grow certain crops. The results of the study will also show where banks of fog will form which could affect airports or if the island is susceptible to winds carrying contaminants, according to sources at the University. The base of the project, financed by the national Ministry of Education and Science, is the development of simulations by means of a numeric model. By this means they have been able to: characterise the areas where cold air accumulates and which will therefore be more susceptible to the formation of ice and fog; to evaluate public transport and energy in the catchment areas; and to know in detail the daily cycle of weather variables. Among other conclusions, the aforementioned simulations show how at night the cold currents of air which start in the mountains flow down to the valley where the cold air accumulates. The model shows that, for the night studied, the wind in general over the island was easterly but it was forced to divert when it met, and was stopped by, the flow of wind down the mountains of the Sierra de Levante. The study also found that the Sierra de Tramuntana acted as a great geographical obstacle which protects the rest of the island, so that inland Majorca has less severe winds than it would otherwise have. The simulation developed by the UIB team is very realistic when it is compared with figures from meteorological stations in areas equivalent to those of the model. Comparison with data from satellites also appears to confirm that the areas where cold air accumulates and the other areas have been captured well by the model simulation.