Welcome!
This is the web site that accompanies my book on Meteorology for Wind Energy published by Wiley. Here you will find a log of what is happening, and you can also download data for the exercises in the book and a few other things. You can of course also buy the book from here!
Lars Landberg is right that there are too many of us using the wind without understanding it. Lars' book will help address that problem and it will entertain as well as educate. He has already taught much of the wind industry about meteorology and, through this book his undoubted didactic talents will reach a much wider audience. Part of his job at Garrad Hassan was to encourage free thinking and who better to do that than someone who cut his meteorological teeth on the Martian weather? You can be sure that he will bring a refreshing approach to this difficult subject.
Our generation has witnessed an extraordinary transition in the electricity industry. Wind used to occupy a position on its fringes where we were patronised as eccentric and naive ideologists - now this fantastic industry is part of the main stream driven by clean and powerful wind. Being able to make a reasonable job of predicting both the behaviour of the wind and the resulting behaviour of the turbines and wind farms has been an essential part of that success.
I have known Lars Landberg for a long time, first as a fellow wind energy enthusiast, then as a colleague and a friend. He was a member of the Garrad Hassan board and it was certainly stimulating to have a board member who had written a book called "Strategy: No Thanks!". From that title you can deduce that this book will have unexpected dimensions to it. I came across the Ekman spiral (my first acquaintance with meteorology) while writing my undergraduate thesis in 1973. I am ashamed to say that I did not know that Ekman was a Swede until I opened this book.
The wind is the free, clean fuel that distinguishes our industry from the expensive dirty stuff that others use but it is also the source of the loads that break the turbines. My meeting with Ekman was in the same year that I made my first wind mill alas destroyed by the wind very quickly. The wind therefore commands both our gratitude and our respect. This book will help us all to deliver that respect by initiating a wider understanding of the wind. Well done Lars!
Andrew Garrad
23 March 2015
