Validation of New Wind Resource Maps: Preprint

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently led a project to validate updated state wind resource maps for the northwestern United States produced by a private U.S. company, TrueWind Solutions (TWS). The independent validation project was a cooperative activity among NREL, TWS, and meteorological consultants. It became clear that using a numerical modeling approach for wind resourcemapping was rapidly gaining ground as a preferred technique and if the trend continues, it will soon become the most widely used technique around the world. The numerical modeling approach is a relatively fast application compared to older mapping methods and, in theory, should be quite accurate because it directly estimates the magnitude of boundary-layer processes that affect the wind resourceof a particular location. Numerical modeling output combined with high-resolution terrain data can produce useful wind resource information at a resolution of 1 km or lower. However, because the use of the numerical modeling approach is new (last 3-5 years) and relatively unproven, meteorological consultants question the accuracy of the approach.