Stephen Norman, Met Office Wind Energy Consultant, will chair a panel session which focuses on Project Development and Risk - Sourcing, developing and acquiring clean power projects.

Stephen will present the science behind Virtual Met Mast^TM which offers cost-effective and reliable site-specific analysis to help investors make the right decisions. Based on world leading research and development from the Met Office it:

• Combines cutting-edge science and supercomputer technology
• Uses the Met Office's Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model, which incorporates observations from satellites, ships, aircraft, ground stations and radar as a foundation for generating site-specific wind farm assessments
• Employs a wide range of continuously monitored wind observations to produce a core wind analysis record (extending back over 20 years)
• Provides site-specific data at hub height for both onshore and offshore locations
• Allows outputs to be correlated with real met mast data to derive the ultimate value from the Virtual Met Mast assessment
• Provides a variety of essential statistics, including confidence figures.

Stephen said: "Investors can now make confident decisions around wind farm projects with scientific enhancements to our Virtual Met Mast^TM service. We're keen to demonstrate to investors at this summit that with key wind climatology statistics and our unique high resolution downscaling techniques, Virtual Met Mast^TM enables accurate predictions of long-term wind resources. These predictions are specific to any European site, thereby reducing investment risks and maximising return on investment."

Virtual Met Mast allows businesses and investors to access specially produced wind assessments for both onshore and offshore sites including mean wind speed, wind direction, exceedance values, air density, wind shear and turbulence intensity in advance of a costly met mast installation.

The Met Office is uniquely placed to offer a range of innovative products aimed directly at the renewable energy sector throughout each stage of the wind energy lifecycle, including:

• Virtual Met Mast - our site-specific wind analysis model-based tool to provide fast and accurate wind farm site screening.
• VisualEyes - an intuitive, web-based weather alert system designed in conjunction with the industry to help manage wind farm assets.
• Wind Production Forecast - a new site specific forecasting service for wind farms and wind energy production, designed to help generators make accurate short-term assessments of power production.