NREL MAPS THE WIND

U.S. DOE's Renewable Energy Lab Maps Wind Resources With GIS
April 20, 2009 (ESRI via PublicWorls.com)

"During the 1970s, the United States experienced a significant energy crisis…Soon after President Jimmy Carter…established the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) was opened in Golden, Colorado. In September 1991, SERI was designated a DOE national laboratory, and its name was changed to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). NREL is the primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development in the United States.

"NREL works to advance many renewable resources, including solar, hydrogen and fuel cells, biomass, and geothermal, but wind is currently the most developed renewable energy market…"

An NREL map. (click to enlarge)

"In May 2008, DOE released a groundbreaking report, 20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply. The report provides a road map to reaching this important goal, including identifying steps and challenges.

"As part of the research behind having 20 percent wind energy by 2030, NREL team members were tasked with updating wind resource maps….Using ArcGIS Desktop software (through a U.S. government license agreement), the NREL team can determine the most favorable locations for wind farms based on the cost of transmission, locations of load centers and wind resources, and the layout of the electrical grid. GIS-based modeling enables analysis of terrain, which significantly impacts the quality of wind at a particular site.

"The NREL team also examines economic development potential based on strong manufacturing centers and filters the data to exclude sites such as national parks and wilderness areas…For utility developers, NREL creates forecasting models…"