US Wind, Inc., a Baltimore-based company developing what will ultimately be the first utility-scale offshore wind energy project in the United States, has selected two Baltimore firms for a range of specialized services related to the fabrication and installation of a meteorological tower necessary for environment activity monitoring.
Strum Contracting Company (SCC), a small and minority-owned full-service provider of steel, welding services and light fabrication products, will provide welding services for the installation of the meteorological tower. The tower is comprised of a steel lattice construction with sensors located at the top of the structure that are used to collect information about the environment (wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, and other environmental factors). The company also will be providing welding services in support of improvements to the port of Baltimore, necessary to sustain the infrastructure for the increased maritime business activity generated by the Offshore Wind project.
US Wind, Inc. also has contracted with Baltimore-based Maritime Applied Physics Corporation (MAPC) for the procurement and installation of instrumentation and power equipment for the meteorological tower.
MAPC is an employee-owned research and development company best known for its advanced hulls, unmanned marine and land vehicles, and motion compensated land, air, and marine vehicle launch and recovery systems. The data collected through this equipment will be used for the final design, financing and a performance warranty of the wind farm. MAPC will procure and install sensors to be placed on the steel lattice meteorological tower for wind measurement, wind direction, air temperature, air pressure, precipitation, relative humidity, lightning detection and bat detection. In addition, an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) will be used to measure water current velocities. MAPC also will be responsible for the Collision Avoidance Equipment and the Power System.
US Wind is an offshore wind developer in the United States, with offshore wind leases in Maryland and New Jersey, and sole developer of interest in South Carolina. U.S. Wind’s project involves the placement of 32 wind turbines at a distance of 17 miles from the Ocean City shoreline (as far east in its federally designated wind energy area as possible). It will generate a power output of approximately 250 megawatts of energy and create more than 7,000 jobs during the development, construction and operating phases, as well as an investment of $1.4 billion and an in-state economic impact of $1.35 billion.
