WAsP is the reference implementation of the wind atlas methodology, DTU Wind Energy’s paradigm for wind resource assessment and collection of atmospheric models, used to first map the European wind resources in the 1980’s (European Wind Atlas, 1989). Since then, the implementation of the research-based software tools has developed significantly, as have the input data to the program. Today, WAsP is an easy-to-use Windows program that can be run on any desktop PC. It can utilise measured or model-derived wind data, together with the newest elevation and land cover data from space shuttles and satellites, in order to predict the wind resources anywhere on planet Earth.
Over the years, WAsP has become a comprehensive software package that has been exported to 120+ countries, and which is considered by many as the industry-standard tool for wind resource and wind farm energy yield assessments. As such, it has been one of DTU Wind Energy’s channels for innovation, transforming research results into to tools and data for industry and society. Over the years, this has led to more than 5,000 WAsP users in 120+ countries (and the shipment of more than 10,000 software packages).
WAsP has further been employed as a teaching tool for continuing education for more than 25 years and more than 1,750 engineers and other professionals have been educated in the use of WAsP. In addition, 250 engineers are now certified users. Since 2008, WAsP has been a powerful teaching tool at DTU and about 500 students have taken the course Planning and Development of Wind Farms.
The global use of WAsP for wind farm development and wind resource mapping has also led to the need for due diligence and second opinion studies all over the world. Most of our scientific advice projects in these areas have been carried out using the WAsP software tools.
You can read more about WAsP in Dynamo 17, Dynamo 34 or on www.wasp.dk.