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Wind Data Monitoring Equipment on Texas state-owned Lands
SECO is currently working with the Texas General Land Office (GLO) and West Texas A & M University's Alternative Energy Institute to collect, analyze and document wind data on Texas state-owned lands. The project includes development and facilitation of a wind monitoring training workshop for interested groups and universities along the Texas coast. The project initiated ongoing development of Geographical Information System data layer on potential wind energy and continues to analyze the potential of coastal wind development through the use of satellite wave and other meteorological data as it becomes available. The coastal and off-shore areas of Texas look very promising for future wind development.
Strong, frequent winds are ideal for generating electricity. The best resource areas are shown on maps incorporating wind speeds based on measurements taken throughout the year at monitoring stations and from meteorological models. Most meteorological models utilize a grid system for calculations. From the calculations of the energy available in the wind, geographic areas as small as one square mile are assigned a wind power class from 1 (the lowest) to 7 (the highest). Developers use this information to find the best areas for wind development.
Class 4 and above are considered good resources. In general, at 50 meters, wind power Class 4 or higher can be useful for generating wind power with large turbines. Sites in Class 3 are candidates for wind farm development, although, given the advances in technology, a number of locations in the Class 3 areas may become suitable for utility-scale wind development. See the U.S. Department of Energy's definitions of wind power classes for more detailed information.
Basic Principles of Wind Resource Evaluation
An American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) web site with information on projecting turbine performance at a given site.
The Alternative Energy Institute (AEI) maintains an index of Texas wind maps, an index of South Texas wind maps, and wind-related GIS maps.
Texas Wind Power
This U.S. map was assembled by the DOE's Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) from available measured wind data. In many areas there were no measured data. To address this shortcoming, PNL scientists partitioned the country into thousands of uniformly sized pieces and to each piece assigned a constant value for wind class.
Texas Renewables Potential Map
A DOE map, showing locations of various renewable energy resources: wind, biomass, solar, and geothermal. The map covers Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Texas Wind Monitoring Stations Locations
East Texas Wind Energy (DOE map)
West Texas Wind Energy (DOE map)
Texas Coastal Wind Resource Assessment
Validated onshore wind resource maps have helped accelerate the development of wind energy in many parts of the country. AWS Truewind will provide wind resource modeling for off-shore areas of Texas through a cost-share project between SECO and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). It is the intent of NREL to produce high-quality validated off-shore wind resource maps from validated gridded model data and use the attendant wind characteristic data to compile a comprehensive database of U.S. wind resources. NREL also plans to use this data to analyze the off-shore wind shear plus other wind characteristics for turbine design and performance.
Texas Renewable Energy Resource Assessment
This SECO study evaluates Texas renewable energy resources, including solar, wind, biomass, water, geothermal and building climatology. The report includes numerous maps and charts.
Geographic Information System: Wind Maps
This U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) web site offers both a national wind resource assessment of the United States and high-resolution wind data.
Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States
DOE researchers assembled these numerous and detailed data sets to estimate wind energy resources for the United States and its territories. The maps indicate general areas where a high wind resource may exist for potential wind farm development sites, and allows developers and potential wind energy users to choose a general area of estimated high wind resource for more detailed examination.
U.S. Wind Energy Capacity and Projects 2006
AWEA map of U.S. wind capacity in each state, with links to projects in each state.
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