Synthesis of National Wind Energy Assessments

The objective of this study is to perform a synthesis of existing national wind energy assessments t o develop an improved consistent assessment of the geographical distribution of the available wind power over the United States. Previous national wind energy assessments have been reviewed with respect to techniques, assumptions, data sets/summaries, and interpolation schemes used. The overall representativeness of the resource maps produced has been evaluated Discrepancies exist among 'previous assessments with regard to geographical variations and the estimated values of wind power. Information from the existiqg national wind energy assessments and various other sources has been selectively used to form a synthesized national assessment. As part of the synthesis, additional research was performed to further improve the national assessment. This included a more detailed examination of some of the inherent problems with respect to the representativeness and reliability of the surface and rawinsonde wind data, techniques employed in the vertical extrapolation of wind power, in the estimation of wind power over mountainous and offshore areas and areas of sparse data, and in the analysis and interpolation of the values