After a 58-day trial and months of waiting for ideal weather, a WindSentinel research buoy collecting offshore wind data for Grand Valley State University was placed in Lake Michigan earlier this month.

The $3.3 million research project is a collaboration between GVSU’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center, the Annis Water Resources Institute, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan.

Researchers are using the 20-by-10-foot, six-ton buoy to collect real-time data on wind, water quality and the flight paths of birds and bats over the Great Lakes, and hope the platform will help determine whether off-shore wind farms are a viable source of alternative energy. Using LiDAR, a new laser technology, the buoy can collect measurements of wind up to 175 meters high, the same height as next-generation wind turbines now on the market.

The mid-lake plateau, where the buoy is placed, is predicted to have a high potential for wind energy, said Jim Edmonson, project manager of the study.

“The data collected with have considerable shelf life value for research purposes,” said Arn Boezaart, MAREC director. “Using a floating research platform to collect wind measurements that high up has never been done before on the Great Lakes or in North America. This is also the first time a research buoy of this type will operate this far offshore. Project supporters across North America are eagerly waiting for the research results.”

In addition to the research institutions involved, results from the study will be used by the NOAA’s National Weather Service for marine forecasts.

As the buoy is located 35 miles offshore of Lake Michigan, data will be collected primarily through satellite, Boezaart said. GVSU researchers will physically collect data from the platform’s data carts every 30 to 45 days, and that data will then be processed in GVSU’s School of Engineering before being passed on to other researchers involved in the project.

“It will continue to give manufacturers of the buoy the opportunity to push the limits of the technology for our benefit, to obtain even more valuable data,” Edmonson said, adding that the study’s access to real-time field data is unique.

Computers on the buoy collect data in one-second increments, Boezaart said.

“This is real exciting for a lot of people,” Boezaart said. “This is the first time that we’re getting direct, real-time wind measurements of this kind using the laser technology we have onboard, so this is a major step forward in measuring wind conditions on the Great Lakes.”

For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/marec.

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