Navarre Beach's prevailing winds may soon be giving Gulf Power and the state or Florida some answers it needs to see if wind turbine energy is feasible to cut energy costs in the state.

Santa Rosa County is partnering with Gulf Power to place a wind meteorological station at the far east end of Navarre Beach in the new county park to measure wind velocity.

"We know we have minimal wind here," county commissioner Gordon Goodin said. "But we won't know if we have enough to try to use wind turbines out there to save taxpayer costs in the future with Gulf Power until we get some measurements. This will do that for us, for no cost to the county except using some land that is not being used right now for anything."

"Gulf Power has not had verifiable evidence in the past to support wind energy alternatives in Florida," said Steven Wright of Gulf Power. "Without that data we cannot move forward with the use of alternative energy wind turbines. We would like to have the tower in place in January 2009, and it will collect data through January 2011. We will issue our report in March 2011."

Wright said the meteorologist tower, or Met Tower, will be 196- feet tall with three places up and down the tower to measure wind speeds.

"It has to be a robust tower, of course, and made from guyed steel," he said. "It will also have lightning rods to protect it from lightning strikes. It will be a latticetype tower."

He said they will be looking for several measurements — annual average wind speed, annual average air density, annual average and extremes of air temperatures, turbulence, upflow, and seasonal wind speed variations.

Gulf Power will supply the tower, the monitoring costs, reporting, and disassembling. Santa Rosa County will provide the site rent-free and assistance with permitting.

"There have been other attempts to collect data on wind energy use in Florida, but the sites have always had a problem because of vegetation," Goodin said. "This is a perfect site, since it is close to the water and will be free of any trees or obstructions. You need to be close to the water to get the convection of prevailing winds, with the prevailing winds from the north in the winter and the south in the summer."

Commission chairman Don Salter added: "It is the responsibility of every local government to partner with corporations if there is a possibility of saving taxpayer monies down the road. This could well save a lot of taxpayer money in the future."