Site Tours
Two site simulation tours of the National Wind Technology Center illustrate the NWTC's location, facilities, and wind resource and a video tour examines the sites facilities.
This is a simulated tour of the National Wind Technology Center showing its location in the state, elevation, and its facilities.
An arial view of the National Wind Technology Center from Google Maps. View a larger map.
Site Simulation Showing Elevation
This 40-second simulation begins with an overview of the entire state of Colorado, zooms in on the NWTC, and then flies around the site.
This video shows the proper heights of turbines and meteorological towers. The buildings are extruded to their maximum height. The elevation of Colorado is exaggerated by 50% to improve the visual simulation. Highways, waterways, and urban areas are shown on top of the colored elevation (red colors are the higher elevation and light-green and beige are the lowest elevations). The video can be divided into three parts: zoom in, fly around, and zoom out.
During the zoom in, the observer approaches the NWTC from the west. The typical strong winter winds will follow this track as they come over the Rocky Mountains and through Eldorado Canyon. The winds exit the canyon and are directed at the NWTC.
During the fly around, the observer travels clockwise around the site. Meteorological towers can be seen on the western side of each turbine. The grey buildings on the west end of the site (mountain side) are a concrete factory and are not part of the NWTC site. These are the only man-made obstacles that can have any effect on the wind at the NWTC. The majority of the NWTC buildings are located on the north side of the site. These provide other testing facilities, office space, and storage. The wind turbines are aligned on north-south rows along access roads. There are approximately a dozen data sheds in the field beside the turbines. The smaller wind turbines are on the western end of the site (upwind end), and the larger turbines are on the eastern end. The small turbines are not affected by the large turbines, and several tests can be run simultaneously. The Google Map to the right gives additional perspective about the location of the NWTC and its facilities. Zoom in on the Google Map to see the NWTC's testing facilities and access roads to both small and large turbines. Zoom out on the Google Map to see its relation to the plains, mountains, and cities.
The zoom out takes the observer back over Eldorado Canyon and into the Rocky Mountains. From the final view, the Denver metro area can be seen behind the NWTC as a grey tinted area. The city of Boulder can also be seen on the left side of the screen.
Site Simulation Showing Wind Resource
This is a simulated tour of the National Wind Technology Center showing its location in the state, the wind resource, and its facilities.
This 30-second simulation shows the wind resource around the NWTC and the wind resource of Colorado. Highways, waterways, and urban areas are shown on top of the colored elevation (red colors are the higher elevation and light-green and beige are the lowest elevations). The video can be divided into four parts: zoom in, transition from elevation to wind resource, fly around, and zoom out.
The observer quickly zooms from the entire state of Colorado to a point east of Denver. Then the video begins a quick flight toward the Rocky Mountains. At about 5 seconds into the video, the landscape transitions from elevation coloring to wind resource coloring. This transition happens over Denver, which is the grey urban area. This wind resource is the power density (Watts of wind energy per square meter) at 50 m altitude. (The data used to make this video is available for download from the NREL Web site. Blue and red areas have the highest annual wind power densities (generally found on the mountain tops). White and beige areas have the least wind resource (generally found in the mountain valleys and places blocked by the mountains).
It must be emphasized that these are annual average power densities. The NWTC has strong winter winds and generally calm summer winds. From an annual energy production point of view (such as from a wind farm developer), the NWTC is not a good location, but from a testing point of view, the NWTC is an ideal location experiencing seasonally high winds almost exclusively from the west. Read more about the site's wind resource characteristics.
Wind Power Classification. Click on the image to view a larger version.
Shortly after transitioning to the wind resource colors scheme, the observer flies slowly counter-clockwise around the NWTC, providing an overview of the NWTC layout. The turbines are aligned north-south with several roads providing access to the turbine sites and the data sheds. The met towers are located on the western sides of their turbines (the upwind side). The heights of the turbines, meteorological towers, and buildings are not correct; this video highlights the NWTC layout and the wind resource.
After flying around the NWTC, the observer is looking north, and then the video quickly zooms out toward the south. It can be clearly seen that the NWTC is in a Class 2 wind resource. The video then tilts to vertical and continues to zoom out. This provides perspective of the NWTC's location to the metropolitan areas of Denver and contiguous cities to the east and south and Boulder to the north-northwest.
Take a video tour of the National Wind Technology Center's facilities.
Video Tour of the NWTC Facilities 
For more information about the site's facilities, please take a video tour.
