If you can accurately predict the weather, you may be able to predict how much energy can be generated from wind turbines.  That was one objective of the “Great Plains Wind Energy Transmission Development Project,” completed in 2011, to “develop a wind energy forecast system, and demonstrate its efficacy in scheduling power output from wind farms in the Great Plains.”  The forecasting system described in the report was comprised of three elements, a software component using various weather prediction models, a wind energy output model, and a graphical user interface.

Detailed wind resource maps, provided by the Wind Powering America Initiative, are another tool for demonstrating wind resource potential and removing some of the guesswork from wind energy prediction. 

You can read more about the wind, weather, and turbine dynamics in OSTI Collections: Wind Power, and link to many other research reports delving deeper into a range of topics related to wind energy.

Daphne Evans, OSTI Staff