Wind

Geographically dependent solar radiation distribution of the Earth-atmospheric system is a primary source of driving atmospheric motion and transferring heat from one part of the globe to another. The basic global wind fields are steered by three cells in latitudes: The Hadley cell, the Ferrel cell, and the Polar cell. Tropical and midlatitude cyclones can rotate the atmosphere extremely fast and move heat from tropic to mid-latitude regions. The trade winds are a pattern of wind that is found in bands around the Earth's equatorial region. The surface air that flows from these subtropical high-pressure belts toward the equator is deflected toward the west in both hemispheres by the Coriolis force. This atmospheric motion contains huge kinetic energy that can be used to benefit human-kind. Unfortunately, this cheap and clean energy is mostly ignored at present, and not utilized to full extent. This page provides wind data and a tool for you to estimate how much wind power you can utilize for generating electricity.

Wind Power Calculation

Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air mass.

Therefore, the wind power density is proportional to a cubic law of the wind speed. Due to the non-linearity, an energy pattern factor, Epf, (Epf=1.9 for Rayleigh distribution), is applied when an averaged wind speed is used to compute the wind power density.

Find Wind Power by Yourself

The map on the upper-left corner provides a tool for you to estimate wind energy for any location in the world. You can either roam to a location, type in a location name, or type in an address, and then use the zooming and drawing buttons to draw an area on the map. The wind power density in that area will be shown. The total available energy also depends on the rotor's diameter and the number of rotors. The number of rotors will be calculated from the selected area and the rotor's diameter if you do not specify a number. By multiplying an efficiency factor, typically between 0.15 and 0.40 (default value 0.2), you can figure out how much wind power you may get through using these wind turbines. If you type in your home address, zoom in on your backyard, draw an area in the backyard, and provide an efficiency factor value, you can estimate how many kilowatt hours of electricity can be generated from a region within your own backyard.

Please note that you may put your wind turbine at higher altitude to capture more wind energy. Wind energy density is doubled when you move wind turbine from 10 meters to 50 meters above the surface.

NOAA Forecasting for Wind Power Development

NOAA forecasting is important for managing wind power operation and wind power development. The NOAA 10-days wind forecasting is made by Global Forecasting System based on initial states assimilated from observations including satellite observations.