Global Wind Atlas 2.3 released

Vindenergi Energi

With the latest release of the Global Wind Atlas, this free, web-based tool has matured into a complete one-stop solution for policymakers and investors looking to identify potential high-wind areas for wind power generation virtually anywhere in the world.

In time for the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice (COP24, 2-14 December), DTU Wind Energy has today released Global Wind Atlas (GWA) version 2.3.

In this new version we introduce capacity factor layers for three IEC classes of 3.45 MW wind turbines, at a hub height of 100 m and taking geographical variations of air density into account. The capacity factor is a measure of the annual energy yield of a wind turbine and higher capacity factors indicate higher annual energy yields. As such, the three global map layers can support the identification of potential high-wind areas for wind power generation.

Another major improvement is the updated power density layer, which is now also taking geographical variations of air density into account, i.e. accounting for the elevation variations of the terrain as well as the barometric reference information (mean temperature, mean pressure and relative humidity) from CFSR reanalysis data.

In addition to display of wind frequency roses, we now also include wind speed roses and wind power roses.

Finally, the user interface of the GWA website also has some important new features, including the ability to generate maps of customized areas and edit the color scaling of maps. It is now also possible to download GIS files for all wind layers, for any area of interest.

The GWA is being developed in partnership with the World Bank Group, with funding provided by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP).

For a list of the important new features, please refer to https://globalwindatlas.info/about/ReleaseNotes

For more information and terms of use, please visit https://globalwindatlas.info.