Where are the windiest regions in Spain? How much energy will wind farms around Spain produce? What will the wind conditions be like for the America's Cup? The localisation of suitable areas for the development of wind parks, the prediction of wind park energy production and the development of new tools for enterprises operating in this sector are but some of the services offered by the company Meteosim. This enterprise, a spin-off from the Universitat de Barcelona (University of Barcelona) and located at the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB, Barcelona Science Park), specializes in the study of wind resources and the prediction of energy production for wind farms.

Meteosim has recently signed a contract with the Spanish America’s Cup team for the development and set up of a wind forecast system for this competition, which will be held in Valencia in the summer of 2007. In addition, this company has, to date, performed climatological studies on wind for the Spanish regions of Extremadura, Galicia, Cantabria, the Italian region of Calabria and for several zones in France. One of its goals is to continue to open up the market in Italy, France ad Eastern Europe. “When we began, we had no customers in the wind industry, at present, this sector accounts for more than 80% of the company’s turnover,” commented Joan Aymamí, director of Meteosim.

To undertake its projects, this company uses MesoMap™ technology, which, through the application of model simulation of atomospheric dynamics, together with historical meteorological and topological data, produces maps of mean wind speed, wind power density, wind and direction distribution and can also establish the gross production of a specific turbine. In addition, this technology provides a resolution between 200 and 30m, and allows the study of extensive zones in only a few weeks, without the need for in situ meteorological data, which are not always easy to obtain and may take years to collect. “We also use the data collected in our customers’ meteorological stations in order to validate our methodology and give an error margin, which is generally around 5-7% of the annual mean wind,” explained Aymamí, “this methodology allows those that use it to establish an advantage over their competitors, as it identifies zones with favourable wind conditions and therefore provides crucial information for the future installation of meteorological stations.”

Moreover, MesoMap™ also allows the simulation of almost all meteorological phenomena that determine wind patterns and are close to the surface. For example, it provides a calculation of local circulations caused by temperature differences between land and sea (marine and land breezes), the effect of channelling through mountain passes, the flow of cold air from mountains into valleys or temperature inversions, among other phenomena.

Meteosim entered the wind energy market in mid 2003. Commissioned by the Generalitat de Catalunya (regional government), at the end of 2004 this spin-off enterprise completed the first detailed atlas of wind power in Catalonia as a complementary tool to ensure the correct ranking of the region for this energy source. This atlas identifies the most promising zones for the development of wind farms. At present, Meteosim has five members of staff and has increased its turnover from approximately 30,000€ in 2003 to 180,000€ in 2004. According to Aymamí, “the economic forecasts for this year have already exceeded the initial objective and a turnover of approximately 1,000,000€ is expected for 2005.”