Explore the Global Wind Atlas

By Craig McCabe and Emily Meriam

Before 2024 wraps up, Esri is happy to announce the addition of the Global Wind Atlas to ArcGIS Living Atlas. These exciting new multidimensional imagery layers put wind potential on the map – for anyone to use – and are the result of a partnership between the Department of Wind Energy at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Wind Energy) and the World Bank Group, with the objective of “helping policymakers, planners, and investors identify high-wind areas for wind power generation virtually anywhere in the world.”

These new layers are useful in myriad applications…too many to cover in a short blog, so please visit the Explore the Global Wind Atlas StoryMap:

There you can find out more about the layers and see how we used them to assess wind energy resources for policy and planning, including one example of a wind farm suitability analysis using the Suitability Modeler in ArcGIS Pro.

Here’s a short synopsis of what these three new global layers provide.

Wind Speed: This layer displays mean wind speed measured by meters per second. It has 250 meter resolution as well as information for five height levels of 10, 50, 100, 150, and 200 meters.

Southern California's Mojave Desert and vicinity showing 100 meter height wind speed. — Here you can see high winds whistling over the tops of Southern California's Transverse Ranges, with the Los Angeles Basin somewhat sheltered from the wind. The Mojave Desert to Los Angeles' north is about 1,500 meters higher in elevation and is more exposed. You can see wind speed is most intense (on land) through the main passes, Tehachapi Pass to Los Angeles' north, and San Gorgonio Pass to Los Angeles' east.

Power Density: This measures the total wind resource and takes into consideration the wind speed and elevation, or density of the wind. This layer displays 250 meter resolution power density at five different heights of 10, 50, 100, 150, and 200 meters.

Power Density at 100 meters near Wellington, New Zealand. — Here we see how the Cook Strait in New Zealand funnels high winds common to the stormy southern latitudes between the North and South Island. You can see how Wellington, on the Strait, is considered one of the world's windiest capitals.

Capacity Factor: The capacity factor layers show three distinct wind turbines, with 100 meter hub height and rotor diameters of 112, 126, and 136 meters. These fall into three International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Classes of IEC1, IEC2, and IEC3 and are multidimensional options in the map. Capacity factors can be used to calculate a preliminary estimate of the energy yield of a wind turbine (in the MW range), when placed at a location.

Capacity Factor IEC Class 1 around the Mediterranean Sea. — Winds trying to make their way from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean find themselves obstructed by mountain ranges and islands. Winds are amplified between the Massif Central and Pyrenees, and again between Corsica and Sardinia.

We’re excited to add these new Global Wind Atlas resources to the Living Atlas for the wind energy and GIS community. Additional questions or feedback? Feel free to contact the Environment team, we’d love to hear from you!

Craig McCabe

Craig is a GIS Engineer, geologist, and geographer on the ArcGIS Living Atlas team at Esri, with a passion for 3D visualization, analysis, and telling stories with spatial data.

Emily Meriam

With over two decades of GIS experience Emily has mapped elephants in Thailand, wildlife poachers in the Republic of Palau, land use related issues around Yosemite National Park, and active wildfire incidents for the State of California. Presently she is a Senior Product Engineer and Cartographer with the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World where she styles and designs layers, maps, and apps with the Environment Team. When not making maps, she is a true geographer and loves traveling with her family.

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