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Wind Data

The available datasets are 50-meter height state-level and regional coverages and 25-kilometer national coverage. Please note that a 50-meter height national coverage is not available. We do not have data or contacts for Alabama, Florida, Louisiana or Mississippi. If you have questions, please contact the Webmaster.

State and national 30-meter, 80-meter and offshore data at 80-meter height data used in the maps located at the Wind Powering America and U.S. DOE EERE websites can be purchased from AWS TruePower.

50-Meter Resolution (50-meter height above surface)

These datasets are geographic shapefiles generated from the original raster data. The original raster data varied in resolution from 200-meter to 1000-meter cell sizes. The data provide an estimate of annual average wind resource for specific states or regions. The data are separated into two distinct groups: NREL produced, and AWS Truepower produced/NREL validated. To learn more, please see Wind Data Details.

The NREL-produced map data only applies to areas of low surface roughness (i.e. grassy plains), and excludes areas with slopes greater than 20%. For areas of high surface roughness (i.e. forests), the values shown may need to be reduced by one or more power classes. The TrueWind-produced resource estimates factor in surface roughness in their calculations, and do not exclude areas with slopes greater than 20%. These data were produced in cooperation with U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Powering America program, and have been validated by NREL and other wind energy meteorological consultants. To download state wind resource maps, visit the Wind Powering America Web site.

Geographic coordinate system name: GCS_WGS_1984

New on this table for these datasets is the option to view the data in Google Earth. To launch this capability, click on the kmz link in the KMZ Files field. Other KMZ links are available through our MapSearch Tool.

90-Meter Resolution Offshore (90-meter height above surface)

Annual average offshore wind speed at a 90-meter height.

Geographic coordinate system name: GCS_WGS_1984

New on this table for these five datasets is the option to view the data in Google Earth. To launch this capability, click on the kmz link in the KMZ Files field. Other KMZ links are available through our MapSearch Tool.

25-kilometer (25-kilometer grid cell resolution)

Description: Annual average wind resource potential for the United States (25-km). Represents wind power class at 25-km height above surface.

Projection: Geographic coordinate system name: GCS_WGS_1984

Note - These zipped shapefile datasets are designed to be used in GIS software applications.

Western Wind Dataset

The Western Wind Dataset provides energy professionals with a consistent set of wind profiles across the western United States. This dataset provides 10-minute time-series wind data for 2004, 2005 and 2006. More than 30,000 data points are available across the western United States.

Eastern Wind Dataset

The Eastern Wind Dataset provides energy professionals with a consistent set of wind profiles for the eastern United States. This dataset provides 10-minute time-series wind data for 2004, 2005, and 2006. More than 1,326 simulated wind farms data points are available across the eastern United States.

For more information on wind resources, access the resource maps page on the Wind Resource Assessment site.

If you have difficulty accessing this data because of a disability, please contact the Webmaster.

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