chris collister Jun 11, 2012:

@ Carol Can you be more specific about what you mean by "electricity meters"? If the section is devoted to calculating the "non-delivered energy" this seems to imply that wind speed measurements are being made independently of the turbine itself, and then being plugged into a turbine model to compare the theoretical expected power with the actual power, ie an efficiency calculation. More context might help to narrow down the search for the "mot juste" if we know what the "mât" is actually doing.

kashew Jun 11, 2012:

A question of scale as CC points out: tower > mast > or even pole for the most modest, http://www.mywindpowersystem.com/2009/05/the-most-amazing-wi...
This Irish company likes mast too - and also life spam! http://www.piltownengineering.ie/pdfs/masts/9mt_wind_turbine...

Tony M Jun 11, 2012:

@ Chris I would tend to agree with you, though do note that there is a nicety of FR planning legislation which applies different taxation to solidly-built 'towers' and removable structures — which I would still refer to as 'towers', but perhaps the FR might seek to differentiate with a more... 'removable' word ;-)

chris collister Jun 11, 2012:

Irony aside, having worked on the acoustics of wind turbines, I never heard these very large concrete and steel structures referred to anything other than "towers", though I concede that the smaller ones (a few kW) may well be....

Terry Richards Jun 11, 2012:

That must be why... ...Google gives 1.3 million hits on "turbine mast"

chris collister Jun 11, 2012:

The word "mât" is used interchangeably in FR to denote either an ancillary measurement mast for windspeed and direction, or for the turbine tower itself (a much bigger affair), which is not generally referred to in EN as a "mast".

Timothy Lemon Jun 11, 2012:

It seems to be a reference tower, used to measure the wind speed and direction.

Kate Collyer Jun 11, 2012:

Yes, I assumed wind energy, and mast is what first occured to me. It's not my field of expertise though.

Carol Rush (asker) Jun 11, 2012:

Wind turbine post Have realised that this is talking about a 'parc eolien" - so this could then be translated as a measurement pole? It goes on to descibe the hub heights of wind turbines, so I think I should consider this as a measurement mast/pole or reference mast/pole?