Sodar article in February North American Windpower

I must admit to being excited to see my name in print in this month's North American Windpower magazine. Editor Jennifer Delony invited us to write an article on sodar for this month's resource assessment issue, and although it was an educational experience, I was unreasonably thrilled to see the final result in the magazine. It's not online, or I'd link to it, but it is in the print edition, which is a free subscription. The cornerstone of my reputation as a world authority has been set!

Second Wind nixes Boston wind turbine

Back in October, we installed a Nomad data logger atop City Hall in Boston. Boston's Mayor Menino had publicly declared his intention to put a wind turbine in City Hall Plaza, pending research. For those who don't know City Hall Plaza, it's a vast concrete and brick expanse surrounded by city, state and federal office buildings. It's one of those urban renewal projects from the 60s where they tore down a struggling but busy neighborhood, Scollay Square (AKA "slum") and replaced it with a socialist-inspired sterile landscape. A wind turbine could only improve it. Now that Boston has one turbine (the highly visible Fuhrlander on the Southeast Expressway), a second one seems appealing.

Alas, the City Hall Plaza winds are typical squirrely city winds with lots of turbulence as the winds bounce off the buildings. Despite being a place where your coat gets blown open and your skirts end up around your ears, it's not windy enough for wind generation. But the results of the study were announced today in the Globe. There was to be a press conference where Ken Cohn was on hand to explain the study, but it was postponed because of the snowstorm.

You are the wind beneath my wings, or: An Intern's Experience

Sorry, I couldn't resist using that for a title.

In keeping with the monthly Triton Newsletter features profiling Second Winders Liz Walls, Chris Babcock, and Louis Manfredi, I’ll tell you a little about myself: My name is Courtney and I’m the sales and marketing intern at Second Wind, and I’ve been working full time with the sales team since September. I graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Politics last spring, and my internship with Second Wind has been a great way to learn a lot about the wind industry. In my spare time I enjoy baking and brewing beer – the fruits of which my coworkers have also enjoyed (on occasion I've brought pies to work, not beer). Today is the last day of my internship, and I'm leaving with new skills, a lot of knowledge about the wind industry, and friends! Seriously, I will miss the fun, talented people I've worked with, and Corvo the office dog.


Since my second week here when Second Wind invited me on the company trip to Chappaquiddick, I knew that this was a great, fun group of people. I’ve really enjoyed working with them, and on top of that, I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of interesting things throughout my internship. I planned a ribbon cutting ceremony for our new Dane Street manufacturing space, which was attended by Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, Representative Denise Provost, and Senator Patricia Jehlen.


I helped the marketing team with diverse projects relating to the release of a new product, Second Wind’s C3 Anemometer. And most importantly, I was a founding member of Posh Ladies of the Wind (PLOW), which is now taking applications for membership and will be featured in an upcoming blog entry. All-in-all, my internship with Second Wind has been a great first employment experience and has set the bar high when it comes to enjoyable and exciting workplaces.

Press coverage for our latest news

Thanks to Good Energies' investment, Second Wind is getting some good press mentions this week:

The Boston Globe!

Mass High Tech News

Xconomy, a cool local blog covering the "exponential economy" wrote their own article.

cnet also wrote their own article for their GreenTech blog.

Techweb

Earthtimes, covering news affecting the human environment

And, of course, our favorite wind publications and websites:

North American Windpower

Renewable Energy Access (love their podcast!)

Wind Today

Windtech International

The role of forecasting and grid integration

Pat Quinlan, Second Wind's former Business Development guy, penned this article on forecasting for Electric Light and Power magazine before his departure. It just hit the presses this month. I hope it makes a contribution toward increasing understanding of wind energy in the conventional generation world. Pat has moved on to the Renewable Energy Research Lab at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. All of us, especially the other UMass wind program alumni here, wish him the best in his new role.

Chicken feet anyone?

Second Wind takes over Chinatown

Today was Second Wind's holiday outing. This year we returned to a favorite haunt, China Pearl in Boston's Chinatown for dim sum. It was very festive taking over our own car on the T. We had three big tables at the restaurant, with an assigned spotter at each to pick the various delicacies from the carts. As often happens, the carts descended on us en masse and most of us were stuffed within about half an hour!

What chopstick skills!
Conversation lags as we all dig in!
Walter Sass has Tabasco sauce at the ready

Season's Greetings, everyone!

We'll be sending our holiday card by email again this year (both environmentally sensitive and cost-conscious) but I couldn't resist sharing this fantastic image on our blog: