Development and Validation of High-Resolution State Wind Resource Maps for the United States

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has coordinated the development and validation of high-resolution state wind resource maps for much of the United States. The majority of these maps were produced for NREL by TrueWind Solutions (now AWS Truewind [AWST]) based in Albany, New York, using its proprietary MesoMap system. AWST's system uses a version of a numerical mesoscale weather prediction model as the basis for calculating the wind resource and important wind flow characteristics. The independent validation project was a cooperative activity among NREL, AWST, and private meteorological consultants. This paper describes the mapping and validation approach and results and discusses the technical modeling issues encountered during the project.