US areal wind resource estimates considering environmental and land-use exclusions

Conference · Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990

OSTI ID:6322944

Elliott, D L; Wendell, L L; Gower, G L

In support of the US Department of Energy's National Energy Strategy initiative, estimates of the land area with various levels of wind energy resource have been developed for each state in the contiguous United States. The estimates are based on published wind resource data and account for the exclusion of some land owing to environmental of land-use considerations. These exclusions assume that 100% of the environmentally sensitive land and various percentages of land designated as urban, agricultural or range would be unavailable for wind energy development. Despite these exclusions, the amount of wind resource thus estimated is surprisingly large. For example, estimates of available wind resource and resultant wind electric potential from advanced turbine technology show that a group of 12 states in the midsection of the country could produce more than three times the nation's 1987 electric energy consumption. 1 ref., 7 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/CE
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6322944
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA-18214; CONF-9009107-5; ON: DE91004065
• Resource Relation: Conference: Windpower '90, Washington, DC (USA), 25-28 Sep 1990
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
USA
ENERGY SUPPLIES
WIND POWER
RESOURCE ASSESSMENT
ELECTRIC GENERATORS
ELECTRIC POWER
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
ENERGY DEMAND
FARMS
LAND USE
NATURE RESERVES
RANGELANDS
RENEWABLE RESOURCES
URBAN AREAS
WIND
WIND TURBINES
DEMAND
ECOSYSTEMS
ENERGY SOURCES
MACHINERY
NORTH AMERICA
POWER
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
RESOURCES
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
170100* - Wind Energy- Resources & Availability (Climatology)
170604 - Wind Energy Engineering- Site Characteristics