The University of Minnesota’s UMore Park wind energy research site in Rosemount, Minn. is not a typical security installation. In fact, security is only secondary to the needs of this project. Yet, Tom Fuxa, director of sales for Plymouth, Minn.-based Paragon Solutions Group Inc., saw an opportunity to apply security technology to this unique project.
The field research station is part of the Eolos Wind Energy Research Consortium, a research-based collaboration between industry, academia and government created to explore wind energy technology, promote economic opportunities in the field, and further national goals to increase the use of wind power. Funded by a $7.9 million wind energy research grant awarded to the University of Minnesota by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2009, the 80-acre Eolos Wind Research Field Station at UMore Park features a Clipper Liberty 2.5 megawatt wind turbine and a 130-meter tall meteorological tower located 160 meters upwind of the turbine.