About Us
RAM Associates is a meteorological consulting firm specializing in wind resource assessment and turbine micrositing. From long-term wind speed estimations to modeling of turbine wake array losses, RAM Associates have the knowledge and expertise to deliver reliable estimates in a timely manner.
RAM Associates was founded in 1989 and, since then, has been at the forefront of research and development in the wind resource assessment sector of the industry. With numerous publications and conference presentations, RAM Associates is considered to be one of the industry leaders in resource assessment and continually strives to further develop techniques and methodologies to advance the knowledge of the scientific community.
RAM Associates has developed an innovative, empirical, terrain-based wind model, RAMWind (patent pending) for producing estimates of wind speeds at turbine sites on a wind farm. In direct comparisons, it has proven to be more accurate than commercial models, such as WAsP, MS Micro3, WindSim and Meteodyn. RAM has also developed an energy-conserving wake model for calculating the energy losses due to wind turbine arrays. This model was recently validated in a wake study along with other models.
At RAM Associates, we are committed to providing services that will help developers create the most efficient and optimal wind farms possible and to conducting research that will further the understanding of the wind and improve the accuracy of wind farm energy estimates.
Who we are:
Jack Kline
The company is headed by Jack Kline, Consulting Meteorologist, who has a BS in meteorology (Florida State University), an MS in atmospheric sciences (Georgia Tech) and is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist (AMS #535). Jack has been working in the wind energy industry since 1982, first as meteorologist at US Windpower (later Kenetech) and then at Howden Wind Parks. He has been consulting since 1989 and has made numerous presentations at industry conferences and workshops.
Liz Walls
Liz is a Consulting Wind Engineer and has been working in the wind industry since 2007. Originally from Calgary, Canada, Liz started her career in the oil and gas industry before entering the wind energy industry. After three and a half years of oil and gas engineering, she left Calgary, moved to Massachusetts and began studying at the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory at UMass Amherst. There, she earned a Master's degree in Mechanical engineering and wrote a project thesis which focused on SODAR and its applicability to the wind energy industry. After graduate school, Liz was hired by Second Wind Inc in Somerville, MA where she worked for three years in developing and testing Second Wind's Triton Sonic Wind Profiler. Liz joined RAM Associates in September 2010. Liz, who in addition to being a SODAR expert, provides energy and wind analysis for wind turbine projects as well as report preparation. She also develops analysis software related to the energy estimates produced at RAM. Liz has a BS in Mechanical Engineering (University of Calgary) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering (University of Massachusetts).
Zachary Kline:
Zack, Wind Engineer/Analyst, handles various data processing and analysis tasks, including basic research and project report preparation. Zack has a BS in Nuclear Engineering (University of California, Berkeley). Zack has worked at RAM since 2005.