Documents
Category:
General and Energy Policy
U.S.A. - State Wind Resource Maps
by U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy - Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program
The Link Below will take you to a site where wind resource maps are available for most states.
Also filed under [
Zoning/Planning|
USA]
This addresses the most important challenges confronting Eltra, the Transmission System Operator in Western Denmark.
Also filed under [
Technology|
Denmark]
Wind Power: Capacity Factor, Intermittency, and what happens when the wind doesn’t blow?
by Renewable Energy Research Laboratory, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in moving air into rotational energy, which in turn is converted to electricity. Since wind speeds vary from month to month and second to second, the amount of electricity wind can make varies constantly. Sometimes a wind turbine will make no power at all. This variability does affect the value of the wind power……
Editor’s Note: This ‘fact sheet’ is, on the whole, a comparatively fair report. The definitions provided for capacity factor, efficiency, reliability, dispatchability, and availability are useful. Its discussion of back-up generation, marginal emissions and Germany & Denmark, however, is disingenuous as is, to a lesser degree, its discussion of capacity factor and availability. IWA's comments (updated October '06) on these issues follow selected extracts from the 'fact sheet' below.