MET Tower to be erected at CC Pampa Center

Construction is now underway at the Clarendon College Pampa Center for a 50 foot meteorological (MET) tower as part of the college’s Wind Energy Program.

Representatives from Cielo Wind Power were on the campus this past Thursday evening to survey and stake out the site for the tower, which will be erected on the southwest corner of the college’s property.

The tower will consist of a 50 foot Rohn-25G Communications tower anchored at three points with two guy wires on each point. The tower will support various meteorological equipment such as a wind vane, an anemometer to measure wind speed and a cellular modem to transmit the data collected by the instruments.

Once operational, students of the Clarendon College Wind Energy program, as well as Cielo Wind Power representatives, will analyze and utilize data as it applies to the wind energy industry.

The data collected from the MET tower will be an invaluable resource as a learning tool to the students. The data will also serve as a record of weather information used by Cielo Wind Power for consideration of future wind projects in this area.

“I am very excited to see this project get off the ground – it has been a long time coming,” CC Wind Energy Instructor Lance Porter said. “This will be a great learning tool for the Wind Energy students of Clarendon College, and it’s also very encouraging to have a wind industry developer like Cielo Wind Power supporting our program.”

The Clarendon College MET tower project has been in the works for the past two years, and Cielo Wind Power donated the tower to Clarendon College as part of their program to promote educational and vocational programs geared toward the wind industry.

Instructor changes in the Wind Energy Program as well as a full schedule for the Cielo Wind Power crew have delayed the project from getting off the ground, but if all goes according to plan, excavation will begin by the end of next week. The actual tower is scheduled to be raised by the end of this month, and final assembly of the instruments and operation should take place in August – just in time for the fall semester to begin.

Cielo Wind Power, LP is an Austin based wind power developer. Its purpose is to develop wind power generation field referred to as the Wind Ranch®. Cielo erects MET towers, like the one being installed at Clarendon College Pampa Center, in areas being considered for development as a Wind Ranch. These towers give the developer the necessary information to go ahead with a project.

Cielo has been very active in the development of several local wind energy developments such as the Golden Spread Panhandle Wind Ranch, the Spinning Spur Wind Ranch, the Lubbock Wind Ranch, the Wildorado Wind Ranch, the Brazos Wind Ranch at Fluvanna, the Llano Estacado Wind Ranch at White Deer and now the Spinning Spur II project which is scheduled to begin this year. To date, Cielo has developed 1,148 megawatts of wind energy generation facilities.

For more information about Cielo Wind Power, visit their website at http://www.cielowind.com/.

For information about the Clarendon College Wind Energy program, call (806) 665-8801, visit the college’s website at http://www.clarendoncollege.edu/, or come by the Pampa Center at 1601 W. Kentucky in Pampa.