The Wind Resource Explorer (WRE) was developed by AWS Truewind, LLC to facilitate the distribution and investigation of wind resource information to a large audience over the Internet. The WRE is designed to provide easy access to spatial and tabular wind resource and ancillary data through the use of an interactive web based mapping interface. This allows the user to manipulate, view, query and print wind resource maps as well as access site specific detailed wind resource reports.

The Purpose and Uses of Wind Resource Explorer

One of the biggest barriers to the use of wind energy is the lack of detailed information about the wind conditions in an area. The performance and economics of wind energy systems are very sensitive to the magnitude and variability of the wind resource, which by nature is highly site specific. A site's wind conditions are influenced by regional weather patterns as well as many other factors, including the elevation of the site relative to surrounding lands, the shape and orientation of the terrain, the vegetative cover, the size and proximity of local buildings and other obstacles, and the nearness to shorelines. Historically, most wind measurements have been taken at airport weather stations located in urban and suburban areas. These weather stations are widely separated and generally do not represent the wind conditions found over intervening hills, mountains, valleys, plains and shorelines. Without initiating a site-specific wind measurement program, it is difficult to determine whether the local wind resources are sufficient for a wind energy system to be feasible.

The purpose of the WRE is to help overcome this barrier through the application of an advanced numerical atmospheric model that integrates existing surface and upper-air wind data and produces high-resolution estimates of the wind resource throughout a region, including offshore waters. The WRE is designed to facilitate the development of wind energy both for large-scale generation (wind farms) and for smaller, single wind turbine applications. In addition, the Wind Map is intended for a wide variety of users, including government planners, private energy developers, electric utilities, private individuals and businesses, and university researchers.

Wind Resource Explorer provides information important to the evaluation of prospective wind energy sites and the estimation of wind turbine performance. Available wind statistics include annual average wind speed at four heights above effective ground level, the frequency distribution of wind speed and wind direction, and wind power density. By querying the system, you will discover a series of wind maps and data tables available as you zoom in on any particular area.