The ability to assess and characterize available wind resources is critical to the development, location and operation of a wind power plant.
WINExchange has been released new maps for wind resources to help accurately define, measure and forecast the country’s land-based and offshore wind resources.
New maps are now available for Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, and Oklahoma. WINDExchange will keep adding new resource maps throughout the year, so stay tuned!
Wind energy maps and data here
Find maps and charts with wind energy data and trends.
A few examples:
US wind energy source at a hub height of 100 meters
The map shows land area with a gross capacity factor of 35% and above, which may be suitable for wind energy development. AWS Truepower LLC produced the wind source data with a spatial resolution of 200 m, which was discarded in 20 km grid cells. The shading of the map indicates the amount of area with the potential to be developed within each 20 km cell: the darker the color, the greater the potentially developable area within each cell. Areas excluded from development by law, such as wildlife areas and national parks, and other areas unlikely to be developed, such as urban areas and water bodies, are also excluded.
Site assessment for wind projects should be coordinated with appropriate authorities and potential impacts on local resources and land use should be taken into account, including but not limited to impacts on wildlife, noise, visual, radar, aviation, security and local priorities. Different federal agencies have powers regarding the placement and authorization of wind power plants, depending on the location and the resources that could be compromised. For example, potential impacts on air traffic and military missions are evaluated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Department of Defense Siting Clearinghouse through the FAA’s airspace obstruction evaluation process. Potential effects on migratory or endangered species are being evaluated with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Other federal agencies that may play a role include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for projects affecting wetlands and waterways and the Bureau of Land Management or U.S. Forest Service for projects on federal territory. Similar state, tribal and local agencies may also have jurisdiction.
Alabama-Florida-Georgia offshore wind speed at 100 meters
Alabama-Florida-Georgia offshore wind speed at 100 meters
This map was created by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) using modeled estimates of wind resources developed by NREL through the Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit and is for general educational purposes only. While these 100m wind speed maps can give a general indication of good or bad wind sources, they do not provide a high enough resolution to identify local features of the site, such as complex terrain, land cover and data needed before a wind project can be set up. . †
Watch a video tutorial for understanding land-based and offshore wind resource maps. To see more maps with wind resourcesto download wind datasets from NRELand learn more about assessment and characterization of wind resources on the DOE . website†
Alabama and Florida Panhandle land-based wind speed at 100 meters
Onshore Wind Speed in Arizona at 100 Meters
Arkansas land-based wind speed at 100 meters
California offshore wind speed at 100 meters
Onshore wind speed in Colorado at 100 meters
Great Lakes Offshore Wind Speed at 100 Meters | Lake Superior and Lake Michigan
Great Lakes Offshore Wind Speed at 100 Meters | Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario
Offshore wind speed in the Gulf of Maine at 100 meters
Idaho land based wind speed at 100 meters
Illinois Onshore Wind Speed at 100 Meters
Thanks to energy.gov
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