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60-415: The Global Wind Atlas is a web-based application developed to help policymakers and investors identify potential high-wind areas for wind power generation virtually anywhere in the world, and perform preliminary calculations. It provides free access to data on wind power density and wind speed at multiple heights using the latest historical weather data and modeling, at an output resolution of 250 meters. It

120-418: A nacelle on top of a tall tubular tower. In a wind farm, individual turbines are interconnected with a medium voltage (often 34.5 kV) power collection system and communications network. In general, a distance of 7D (7 times the rotor diameter of the wind turbine) is set between each turbine in a fully developed wind farm. At a substation, this medium-voltage electric current is increased in voltage with

180-620: A transformer for connection to the high voltage electric power transmission system. Most modern turbines use variable speed generators combined with either a partial or full-scale power converter between the turbine generator and the collector system, which generally have more desirable properties for grid interconnection and have low voltage ride through -capabilities. Modern turbines use either doubly fed electric machines with partial-scale converters or squirrel-cage induction generators or synchronous generators (both permanently and electrically excited) with full-scale converters. Black start

240-752: A completely redesigned user interface developed by the company Nazka Mapps . Following further modeling work, a new version of the microscale modeling data was released in July 2018 (GWA 2.1), bringing the resolution down to 250 meters. This was followed by a further release in September 2018 (GWA 2.2) that included a number of improvements to the user interface, a new tool for preparing and downloading poster maps, and various bug fixes. The most recent release, in November 2018 (GWA 2.3) introduced three capacity factor layers, new wind roses, and improved calculation of power density, and

300-450: A complex terrain flow model, a roughness change model, a model for sheltering obstacles, a wind turbine wake model and a model for the average atmospheric stability conditions at the site. The software package further contains a Climate Analyst for creating the wind-climatological inputs, a Map Editor for creating and editing the topographical inputs, and a Turbine Editor for creating the wind turbine inputs to WAsP. The fundamentals of WAsP and

360-514: A grid system. Intermittency and the non- dispatchable nature of wind energy production can raise costs for regulation, incremental operating reserve , and (at high penetration levels) could require an increase in the already existing energy demand management , load shedding , storage solutions, or system interconnection with HVDC cables. Fluctuations in load and allowance for the failure of large fossil-fuel generating units require operating reserve capacity, which can be increased to compensate for

420-479: A power system that has the potential to meet power supply needs reliably. Integrating ever-higher levels of renewables is being successfully demonstrated in the real world. Solar power tends to be complementary to wind. On daily to weekly timescales, high-pressure areas tend to bring clear skies and low surface winds, whereas low-pressure areas tend to be windier and cloudier. On seasonal timescales, solar energy peaks in summer, whereas in many areas wind energy

480-405: A probability distribution function is often fit to the observed wind speed data. Different locations will have different wind speed distributions. The Weibull model closely mirrors the actual distribution of hourly/ten-minute wind speeds at many locations. The Weibull factor is often close to 2 and therefore a Rayleigh distribution can be used as a less accurate, but simpler model. A wind farm

540-425: A share of about 10% of new installations. Wind power is one of the lowest-cost electricity sources per unit of energy produced. In many locations, new onshore wind farms are cheaper than new coal or gas plants . Regions in the higher northern and southern latitudes have the highest potential for wind power. In most regions, wind power generation is higher in nighttime, and in winter when solar power output

600-530: A system fault. Offshore wind power is wind farms in large bodies of water, usually the sea. These installations can use the more frequent and powerful winds that are available in these locations and have less visual impact on the landscape than land-based projects. However, the construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher. As of November 2021, the Hornsea Wind Farm in the United Kingdom

660-435: A thermal engine, absorbing heat at higher temperatures, releasing heat at lower temperatures. The process is responsible for the production of wind kinetic energy at a rate of 2.46 W/m thus sustaining the circulation of the atmosphere against friction. Through wind resource assessment , it is possible to estimate wind power potential globally, by country or region, or for a specific site. The Global Wind Atlas provided by

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720-420: Is a group of wind turbines in the same location. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines distributed over an extended area. The land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes. A wind farm may also be located offshore. Almost all large wind turbines have the same design — a horizontal axis wind turbine having an upwind rotor with 3 blades, attached to

780-592: Is considered a sustainable , renewable energy source, and has a much smaller impact on the environment compared to burning fossil fuels . Wind power is variable , so it needs energy storage or other dispatchable generation energy sources to attain a reliable supply of electricity. Land-based (onshore) wind farms have a greater visual impact on the landscape than most other power stations per energy produced. Wind farms sited offshore have less visual impact and have higher capacity factors , although they are generally more expensive. Offshore wind power currently has

840-451: Is low. For this reason, combinations of wind and solar power are suitable in many countries. Wind is air movement in the Earth's atmosphere. In a unit of time, say 1 second, the volume of air that had passed an area A {\displaystyle A} is A v {\displaystyle Av} . If the air density is ρ {\displaystyle \rho } ,

900-480: Is lower in summer and higher in winter. Thus the seasonal variation of wind and solar power tend to cancel each other somewhat. Wind hybrid power systems are becoming more popular. For any particular generator, there is an 80% chance that wind output will change less than 10% in an hour and a 40% chance that it will change 10% or more in 5 hours. In summer 2021, wind power in the United Kingdom fell due to

960-840: Is owned and maintained by the Wind Energy Department of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Wind Energy) and in recent years has been developed in close partnership with the World Bank , with funding provided by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). The original version of the Global Wind Atlas (GWA 1.0) was developed by DTU Wind Energy under the framework of the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and, in particular,

1020-412: Is possible and is being further developed for places (such as Iowa ) which generate most of their electricity from wind. Transmission system operators will supply a wind farm developer with a grid code to specify the requirements for interconnection to the transmission grid. This will include the power factor , the constancy of frequency , and the dynamic behaviour of the wind farm turbines during

1080-746: Is sent to the rest of the British grid . On a monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly basis—or less—wind might supply as much as or more than 100% of current use, with the rest stored, exported or curtailed. The seasonal industry might then take advantage of high wind and low usage times such as at night when wind output can exceed normal demand. Such industry might include the production of silicon, aluminum, steel, or natural gas, and hydrogen, and using future long-term storage to facilitate 100% energy from variable renewable energy . Homes and businesses can also be programmed to vary electricity demand , for example by remotely turning up water heater thermostats. Wind power

1140-415: Is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 1,218 MW . Near offshore wind farms may be connected by AC and far offshore by HVDC. Wind power resources are not always located near to high population density. As transmission lines become longer, the losses associated with power transmission increase, as modes of losses at lower lengths are exacerbated and new modes of losses are no longer negligible as

1200-459: Is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails , windmills and windpumps , but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation. Today, wind power is generated almost completely with wind turbines , generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid . In 2022, wind supplied over 2,304 TWh of electricity, which

1260-449: Is variable, and during low wind periods, it may need to be replaced by other power sources. Transmission networks presently cope with outages of other generation plants and daily changes in electrical demand, but the variability of intermittent power sources such as wind power is more frequent than those of conventional power generation plants which, when scheduled to be operating, may be able to deliver their nameplate capacity around 95% of

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1320-472: The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts . Version 3.0 takes advantage of next generation of reanalysis ERA5 while increasing mesoscale resolution to 3km. That data is converted to generalized wind for input to the microscale models developed and run by DTU. While tools such as the Global Wind Atlas can provide useful data to support planning and initial site scoping, they are no replacement for

1380-715: The MASDAR Institute . The IRENA Global Atlas of Renewable Energy created a dedicated platform to serve GWA 1.0 data to a worldwide audience. In early 2017, DTU Wind Energy entered into discussions with ESMAP at the World Bank to update and improve the Global Wind Atlas, and bring it into line with the Global Solar Atlas that was launched by the World Bank in January 2017. Utilizing funding provided under ESMAP's existing initiative on renewable energy resource assessment and mapping,

1440-482: The Paris Agreement 's goals to limit climate change , analysts say it should expand much faster – by over 1% of electricity generation per year. Expansion of wind power is being hindered by fossil fuel subsidies . The actual amount of electric power that wind can generate is calculated by multiplying the nameplate capacity by the capacity factor , which varies according to equipment and location. Estimates of

1500-540: The Technical University of Denmark in partnership with the World Bank provides a global assessment of wind power potential. Unlike 'static' wind resource atlases which average estimates of wind speed and power density across multiple years, tools such as Renewables.ninja provide time-varying simulations of wind speed and power output from different wind turbine models at an hourly resolution. More detailed, site-specific assessments of wind resource potential can be obtained from specialist commercial providers, and many of

1560-548: The third power of the wind speed; the available power increases eightfold when the wind speed doubles. Change of wind speed by a factor of 2.1544 increases the wind power by one order of magnitude (multiply by 10). The global wind kinetic energy averaged approximately 1.50 MJ/m over the period from 1979 to 2010, 1.31 MJ/m in the Northern Hemisphere with 1.70 MJ/m in the Southern Hemisphere. The atmosphere acts as

1620-457: The 200 km of offshore wind data coverage, added a 1 km buffer zone, and then mapped any areas up to 1 km in depth with wind speeds above 7 m/s. The analysis divides the resource potential into fixed foundation and floating potential, with a cut-off of 50 m water depth for fixed. 55 regional and country maps have since been published and the analysis has been cited in a number of other publications. Wind power Wind power

1680-652: The CEM Working Group on Solar and Wind Technologies, led by Germany, Spain and Denmark. The Technology Development and Demonstration Program of the Danish Energy Agency (EUDP 11-II, 64011-0347) funded GWA 1.0 as the Danish contribution to the objectives of the working group. GWA 1.0 was launched in 2015, and benefited from collaboration with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and

1740-426: The ability to download GIS files, among other features. The latest release of the Global Wind Atlas (3.0) was launched on October 25, 2019, featuring further methodological modeling improvements, all new raw data (based on 10 years of mesoscale time-series model simulations), data coverage spanning 200 kilometers offshore, two additional heights (data now at 10, 50, 100, 150 and 200 m above ground/sea level), as well as

1800-400: The biggest current challenges to wind power grid integration in some countries is the necessity of developing new transmission lines to carry power from wind farms, usually in remote lowly populated areas due to availability of wind, to high load locations, usually on the coasts where population density is higher. Any existing transmission lines in remote locations may not have been designed for

1860-700: The capacity factor can be calculated from the yearly output. Wind energy penetration is the fraction of energy produced by wind compared with the total generation. Wind power's share of worldwide electricity usage in 2021 was almost 7%, up from 3.5% in 2015. There is no generally accepted maximum level of wind penetration. The limit for a particular grid will depend on the existing generating plants, pricing mechanisms, capacity for energy storage , demand management, and other factors. An interconnected electric power grid will already include reserve generating and transmission capacity to allow for equipment failures. This reserve capacity can also serve to compensate for

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1920-406: The capacity factors for wind installations are in the range of 35% to 44%. Since wind speed is not constant, a wind farm's annual energy production is never as much as the sum of the generator nameplate ratings multiplied by the total hours in a year. The ratio of actual productivity in a year to this theoretical maximum is called the capacity factor. Online data is available for some locations, and

1980-577: The company VORTEX FDC was commissioned to carry out a global mesoscale wind energy modeling exercise at 9 km resolution. This data was provided to DTU Wind Energy for further microscale modeling, initially down to 1 km resolution. In November 2018 the Global Wind Atlas (GWA 2.0) was launched by DTU Wind Energy and the World Bank at the Wind Europe 2018 conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, based on

2040-465: The construction and operating phase. Jobs include the manufacturing of wind turbines and the construction process, which includes transporting, installing, and then maintaining the turbines. An estimated 1.25 million people were employed in wind power in 2020. WAsP The predictions are based on wind data measured at meteorological stations in the same region, or on generalised wind climates derived from mesoscale model results. The program includes

2100-535: The core wind data in the RETScreen software. It is used by governments, renewable energy developers, and academics, and has an average of 7,500 unique users per month as of October 2018. Data from the Global Wind Atlas has been used by the World Bank Group to create maps on offshore wind technical potential in a number of developing countries as part of a report on this topic published in 2019. The methodology used

2160-757: The cost of wind power matches traditional sources) in some areas of Europe in the mid-2000s, and in the US around the same time. Falling prices continue to drive the Levelized cost down and it has been suggested that it has reached general grid parity in Europe in 2010, and will reach the same point in the US around 2016 due to an expected reduction in capital costs of about 12%. In 2021, the CEO of Siemens Gamesa warned that increased demand for low-cost wind turbines combined with high input costs and high costs of steel result in increased pressure on

2220-399: The electric-power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur. It is thought that the most reliable low-carbon electricity systems will include a large share of wind power. Typically, conventional hydroelectricity complements wind power very well. When the wind is blowing strongly, nearby hydroelectric stations can temporarily hold back their water. When

2280-514: The electricity . For example, socially responsible manufacturers pay utility companies a premium that goes to subsidize and build new wind power infrastructure. Companies use wind-generated power, and in return, they can claim that they are undertaking strong "green" efforts. Wind projects provide local taxes, or payments in place of taxes and strengthen the economy of rural communities by providing income to farmers with wind turbines on their land. The wind energy sector can also produce jobs during

2340-417: The elimination of subsidies in many markets. As of 2021, subsidies are still often given to offshore wind. But they are generally no longer necessary for onshore wind in countries with even a very low carbon price such as China, provided there are no competing fossil fuel subsidies . Secondary market forces provide incentives for businesses to use wind-generated power, even if there is a premium price for

2400-474: The export of electric power when needed. Electrical utilities continue to study the effects of large-scale penetration of wind generation on system stability. A wind energy penetration figure can be specified for different duration of time but is often quoted annually. To generate almost all electricity from wind annually requires substantial interconnection to other systems, for example some wind power in Scotland

2460-485: The introduction of the all new energy yield calculator, allowing users to a) specify a generic or custom wind turbine and b) create downloadable GIS-data for annual energy production, capacity factor, or full load hours for estimating power generation for any given point or area. The Global Wind Atlas is based on a coupling of mesoscale to microscale modeling. The mesoscale modeling carried out by Vortex for GWA 2.0 uses ERA Interim meteorological re-analysis data provided by

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2520-403: The larger wind developers have in-house modeling capabilities. The total amount of economically extractable power available from the wind is considerably more than present human power use from all sources. The strength of wind varies, and an average value for a given location does not alone indicate the amount of energy a wind turbine could produce there. To assess prospective wind power sites,

2580-426: The length is increased; making it harder to transport large loads over large distances. When the transmission capacity does not meet the generation capacity, wind farms are forced to produce below their full potential or stop running altogether, in a process known as curtailment . While this leads to potential renewable generation left untapped, it prevents possible grid overload or risk to reliable service. One of

2640-415: The low marginal costs of this technology. The effect has been identified in several European markets. For wind power plants exposed to electricity market pricing in markets with high penetration of variable renewable energy sources, profitability can be challenged. Turbine prices have fallen significantly in recent years due to tougher competitive conditions such as the increased use of energy auctions, and

2700-408: The lowest winds in seventy years, In the future, smoothing peaks by producing green hydrogen may help when wind has a larger share of generation. While the output from a single turbine can vary greatly and rapidly as local wind speeds vary, as more turbines are connected over larger and larger areas the average power output becomes less variable and more predictable. Weather forecasting permits

2760-510: The manufacturers and decreasing profit margins. Northern Eurasia, Canada, some parts of the United States, and Patagonia in Argentina are the best areas for onshore wind: whereas in other parts of the world solar power, or a combination of wind and solar, tend to be cheaper. Wind power is capital intensive but has no fuel costs. The price of wind power is therefore much more stable than

2820-708: The marginal price, by minimizing the use of expensive peaking power plants . The cost has decreased as wind turbine technology has improved. There are now longer and lighter wind turbine blades, improvements in turbine performance, and increased power generation efficiency. Also, wind project capital expenditure costs and maintenance costs have continued to decline. In 2021, a Lazard study of unsubsidized electricity said that wind power levelized cost of electricity continues to fall but more slowly than before. The study estimated new wind-generated electricity cost from $ 26 to $ 50/MWh, compared to new gas power from $ 45 to $ 74/MWh. The median cost of fully deprecated existing coal power

2880-419: The mass of this volume of air is M = ρ A v {\displaystyle M=\rho Av} , and the power transfer, or energy transfer per second is P = 1 2 M v 2 = 1 2 ρ A v 3 {\displaystyle P={\tfrac {1}{2}}Mv^{2}={\tfrac {1}{2}}\rho Av^{3}} . Wind power is thus proportional to

2940-493: The more detailed analysis needed when evaluating actual wind farm projects. In addition to the data available via the Global Wind Atlas website, users may also download poster maps, GIS data, and Generalized Wind Climate (GWC) files for use in commercial wind resource assessment software such as WAsP . GIS data from the Global Wind Atlas is available via the IRENA Global Atlas for Renewable Energy, and has been included as

3000-514: The required electrical base-load can save both fuel and total electrical generation costs. The energy needed to build a wind farm divided into the total output over its life, Energy Return on Energy Invested , of wind power varies, but averages about 20–25. Thus, the energy payback time is typically around a year. Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electric power, cheaper than coal plants and new gas plants. According to BusinessGreen , wind turbines reached grid parity (the point at which

3060-408: The time. Electric power generated from wind power can be highly variable at several different timescales: hourly, daily, or seasonally. Annual variation also exists but is not as significant. Because instantaneous electrical generation and consumption must remain in balance to maintain grid stability, this variability can present substantial challenges to incorporating large amounts of wind power into

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3120-625: The transport of large amounts of energy. In particular geographic regions, peak wind speeds may not coincide with peak demand for electrical power, whether offshore or onshore. A possible future option may be to interconnect widely dispersed geographic areas with an HVDC super grid . In 2020, wind supplied almost 1600 TWh of electricity, which was over 5% of worldwide electrical generation and about 2% of energy consumption. With over 100 GW added during 2020, mostly in China , global installed wind power capacity reached more than 730 GW. But to help meet

3180-580: The variability of wind generation. Utility-scale batteries are often used to balance hourly and shorter timescale variation, but car batteries may gain ground from the mid-2020s. Wind power advocates argue that periods of low wind can be dealt with by simply restarting existing power stations that have been held in readiness, or interlinking with HVDC. The combination of diversifying variable renewables by type and location, forecasting their variation, and integrating them with dispatchable renewables, flexible fueled generators, and demand response can create

3240-407: The varying power generation produced by wind stations. Studies have indicated that 20% of the total annual electrical energy consumption may be incorporated with minimal difficulty. These studies have been for locations with geographically dispersed wind farms, some degree of dispatchable energy or hydropower with storage capacity, demand management, and interconnected to a large grid area enabling

3300-692: The volatile prices of fossil fuel sources. However, the estimated average cost per unit of electric power must incorporate the cost of construction of the turbine and transmission facilities, borrowed funds, return to investors (including the cost of risk), estimated annual production, and other components, averaged over the projected useful life of the equipment, which may be more than 20 years. Energy cost estimates are highly dependent on these assumptions so published cost figures can differ substantially. The presence of wind energy, even when subsidized, can reduce costs for consumers (€5 billion/yr in Germany) by reducing

3360-604: The wind atlas methodology are described in the European Wind Atlas. WAsP is developed and distributed by DTU Wind and Energy Systems at the Technical University of Denmark , Denmark . Current version is WAsP 12.7. WAsP is used for: A special implementation of the WAsP software has been used to map the wind climate of the entire world with a resolution of 250 m, see the Global Wind Atlas . This article about wind power

3420-534: The wind drops they can, provided they have the generation capacity, rapidly increase production to compensate. This gives a very even overall power supply and virtually no loss of energy and uses no more water. Alternatively, where a suitable head of water is not available, pumped-storage hydroelectricity or other forms of grid energy storage such as compressed air energy storage and thermal energy storage can store energy developed by high-wind periods and release it when needed. The type of storage needed depends on

3480-542: The wind penetration level – low penetration requires daily storage, and high penetration requires both short- and long-term storage – as long as a month or more. Stored energy increases the economic value of wind energy since it can be shifted to displace higher-cost generation during peak demand periods. The potential revenue from this arbitrage can offset the cost and losses of storage. Although pumped-storage power systems are only about 75% efficient and have high installation costs, their low running costs and ability to reduce

3540-539: Was $ 42/MWh, nuclear $ 29/MWh and gas $ 24/MWh. The study estimated offshore wind at around $ 83/MWh. Compound annual growth rate was 4% per year from 2016 to 2021, compared to 10% per year from 2009 to 2021. While the levelised costs of wind power may have reached that of traditional combustion based power technologies, the market value of the generated power is also lower due to the merit order effect, which implies that electricity market prices are lower in hours with substantial generation of variable renewable energy due to

3600-537: Was 7.8% of world electricity. With about 100 GW added during 2021, mostly in China and the United States , global installed wind power capacity exceeded 800 GW. 32 countries generated more than a tenth of their electricity from wind power in 2023 and wind generation has nearly tripled since 2015. To help meet the Paris Agreement goals to limit climate change , analysts say it should expand much faster – by over 1% of electricity generation per year. Wind power

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