Hybrid System Site Assessment
A site assessment replaces opinion with observation. Work through these checks at the position where a turbine would actually stand.
| Check | What to observe |
|---|---|
| Openness | Stand at the turbine position and turn full circle: how open is the horizon in each direction? |
| Obstacles | Note buildings, tree lines and terrain between the position and the directions weather arrives from. |
| Seasonal timing | From local knowledge and records, in which months is wind strongest, and do they match the solar shortfall months? |
| Daily timing | Does wind arrive at night or with storms, when solar is absent, or mainly on sunny afternoons? |
| Tower practicality | Is there room for a tower and its guys or foundation, with safe access for installation and service? |
| Load access | How far is the position from the battery and load centre, and what does the cable run cross? |
| Restrictions | Are there local rules, neighbours or site conditions that limit a tower or its height? |
Reading your own results
An open position, wind that rises in the shortfall months, and room for a tower point toward the wind and solar hybrid system. A sheltered position, or wind that only matches the sunny season, points back to a solar-only design with more array and battery, as the selection comparison sets out. Either conclusion is a good outcome of the same assessment; the expensive outcome is skipping it. Record your observations and bring them to the planning guide step.
Before ordering, confirm minimum order quantity and lead time for your configuration.
Assess in the bad season if you can
An assessment made in the site's generous season flatters every design. If the decision calendar allows it, make the key observations in the season that motivated the project: the dark, unsettled weeks when the existing system struggles. Wind behaviour, cloud persistence and load pressure all show their real character then, and a turbine position judged in those weeks has been judged honestly. Where the calendar does not allow waiting, weight local testimony from that season more heavily than your own fair-weather visit, and record that weighting in the assessment so the final decision can be revisited with open eyes.
Finish the assessment with a sentence, not a spreadsheet: this site, in its worst month, does or does not offer wind worth harvesting, for these observed reasons. That sentence, signed and dated, is what the configuration is later built on, and it is what protects the project when memories of the weather begin to differ.
Note what the site does to equipment
While observing the wind, observe the site itself as equipment will experience it: salt in the air near a coast, dust on an inland plain, driving rain, ice, heat, animals and human traffic all write themselves into a system's life. A position that is windy and corrosive argues for different fixings and inspection habits than a position that is windy and kind. Record these conditions in the assessment; they shape tower treatment, enclosure expectations and the maintenance plan, and a supplier told about them at assessment stage can allow for them in the configuration instead of meeting them as surprises.
Include the load centre in the walk
End the assessment at the load centre, not at the turbine position. Confirm where the battery lives, how the cables from both sources will reach it, and who will hear the system if it complains at night. An assessment that covers generation but not the building it feeds has done the scenic half of the job.