Land use and turbine technology influences on wind potential in the United States

Lopez, Anthony; Mai, Trieu; Lantz, Eric; Harrison-Atlas, Dylan; Williams, Travis; Maclaurin, Galen

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2021.120044

Land use and turbine technology influences on wind potential in the United States

Journal Article · Thu Feb 04 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.120044· OSTI ID:1783089

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

As clean energy ambitions have expanded, critically evaluating renewable energy supply has become increasingly important to the energy research community and stakeholders. This study examines the onshore wind resource potential for the conterminous United States and its sensitivity to siting constraints and turbine technology innovation. We compile localized regulatory information and use high-resolution data to present multiple siting regimes covering relatively constrained to unconstrained potentials. Our efforts reveal high sensitivity to these variables and sizable uncertainty in the overall wind energy resource potential. Specifically, we find that siting constraints may shift the total capacity available to commercial wind energy by 2.3–15.1 TW. Furthermore, our results illustrate that technology advancement could require larger setbacks from buildings and infrastructure, reducing the total available capacity potential by 20% relative to estimates using current technology, but that this reduction is largely offset by increased generation such that the net effect on generation is 1%. The observed sensitivity to and uncertainty resulting from the variables we analyze suggest there is value in continued study and development of increasingly sophisticated approaches to characterizing wind resource potential.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1783089

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1903646
OSTI ID: 23199798

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-6A20-77473; MainId:27409; UUID:4a2ee546-d6d2-4be8-aec7-f3f1c66c9ce6; MainAdminID:22441

Journal Information:: Energy, Journal Name: Energy Vol. 223; ISSN 0360-5442

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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