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A wind atlas contains data on the wind speed and wind direction in a region. [1] These data include maps, but also time series or frequency distributions. A climatological wind atlas covers hourly averages at a standard height (10 meters) over even longer periods (30 years) but depending on the application there are variations in averaging time, height and period. [2]
A wind atlas is employed when pre-selecting wind farm sites. The required data includes 10-minute averaged wind at heights between 30 and 100 meters over a 10 to 20-year period. [2]
Using wind for energy [1] is an idea first brought about by James Blyth, who is believed to have made the first wind turbine in Scotland in 1887. In the United States Charles Bush developed the first wind turbine in Ohio a year later. [3]
The first well-known wind atlas was the European Wind Atlas, published in 1989. Russia published a wind atlas in 2000, followed by Egypt in 2006. A global wind atlas was then made in order to help as many countries as possible.
At least one wind atlas covers the globe, and other wind atlases cover the EU12 countries and the European offshore regions. Wind atlases have also been compiled for many countries or regions. [4]
Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically, wind power has been used in sails, windmills and windpumps but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines, which are connected to the electric power transmission network.
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity produced from hydropower. In 2020 hydropower generated one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh, which was more than all other renewables combined and also more than nuclear power.
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an extensive area. Wind farms can be either onshore or offshore.
Denmark was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, and today a substantial share of the wind turbines around the world are produced by Danish manufacturers such as Vestas—the world's largest wind-turbine manufacturer—along with many component suppliers. In Denmark's electricity sector wind power produced the equivalent of 47% of Denmark's total electricity consumption in 2019, an increase from 43.4% in 2017, 39% in 2014, and 33% in 2013. In 2012, the Danish government adopted a plan to increase the share of electricity production from wind to 50% by 2020, and to 84% by 2035. Denmark had the 4th best energy architecture performance in the world in 2017 according to the World Economic Forum, and the second best energy security in the world in 2019 according to the World Energy Council.
Wind power generation capacity in India has significantly increased in recent years. As of 1 July 2022, the total installed wind power capacity was 40.788 GW, the fourth largest installed wind power capacity in the world. Wind power capacity is mainly spread across the Southern, Western and Northern Western regions.
The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long, cold winters and short, cool summers. There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic, but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter. Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice year-round, and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface.
Wind resource assessment is the process by which wind power developers estimate the future energy production of a wind farm. Accurate wind resource assessments are crucial to the successful development of wind farms.
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. Wind turbines are an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy, and are used in many countries to lower energy costs and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. One study claimed that, as of 2009, wind had the "lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions, the least water consumption demands and the most favorable social impacts" compared to photovoltaic, hydro, geothermal, coal and gas energy sources.
Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of capacity installed. Offshore wind farms are also less controversial than those on land, as they have less impact on people and the landscape.
Wind power in Belgium depends partially on regional governments and partially on the Belgian federal government. Wind energy producers in both the Flemish and Walloon regions get green certificates but not with the same conditions.
As of June 2022, wind power in the Netherlands has an installed capacity of 8,052 MW, 30.5% of which is based offshore. In 2019, the wind turbines provided the country with 12% of its electricity demand during the year, a figure that is growing but somewhat below the average of 15% that wind power provides across the whole of the EU's electricity consumption. The Dutch are trying to meet the EU-set target of producing 14% of total energy use from renewable sources by 2020, and 16% by 2023. Windmills have historically played a major part in the Netherlands by providing an alternative to water driven mills.
The electricity sector in Finland relies on nuclear power, forest industry black liquor and wood consumption, cogeneration and electricity import from neighboring countries. In 2008 the consumption of electricity in Finland was 17 036 kWh/person. The European union (15) average was 7 409 kWh/person. Co-generation of heat and electricity for industry process heat and district heating is common in Finland. Finland is one of the last countries in the world still burning peat.
The worldwide total cumulative installed electricity generation capacity from wind power has increased rapidly since the start of the third millennium, and as of the end of 2020, it amounts to 733 GW. Since 2010, more than half of all new wind power was added outside the traditional markets of Europe and North America, mainly driven by the continuing boom in China and India. At the end of 2015, China had 145 GW of wind power installed. In 2015, China installed close to half the world's added wind power capacity.
IEC 61400 is an international standard published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) regarding wind turbines.
Variable renewable energy (VRE) or intermittent renewable energy sources (IRES) are renewable energy sources that are not dispatchable due to their fluctuating nature, such as wind power and solar power, as opposed to controllable renewable energy sources, such as dammed hydroelectricity or biomass, or relatively constant sources, such as geothermal power.
Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain, the Netherlands today lags behind all other member states of the European Union in the production of energy from renewable sources. In 2019, the Netherlands produced just 8.6% of its total energy from renewables.[data unknown/missing] According to statistics published by Eurostat, it is the last among the EU countries in the shift away from global warming-inducing energy sources. The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass, wind, solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power. In 2018 decisions were taken to replace natural gas as the main energy source in the Netherlands with increased electrification being a major part of this process.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to wind energy:
Renewable energy in Bangladesh refers to the use of renewable energy to generate electricity in Bangladesh. The current renewable energy comes from biogas that is originated from biomass, hydro power, solar and wind.
The Global Wind Atlas is a web-based application developed to help policymakers and investors identify potential high-wind areas for wind power generation virtually anywhere in the world, and perform preliminary calculations. It provides free access to data on wind power density and wind speed at multiple heights using the latest historical weather data and modeling, at an output resolution of 250 meters. It is owned and maintained by the Wind Energy Department of the Technical University of Denmark and in recent years has been developed in close partnership with the World Bank, with funding provided by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP).
World energy supply and consumption is global production and preparation of fuel, generation of electricity, energy transport and energy consumption. It is a basic part of economic activity. It includes heat, but not energy from food. Many countries publish statistics on the energy supply and consumption of either their own country, of other countries of interest, or of all countries combined in one chart. One of the largest organizations in this field, the International Energy Agency (IEA), publishes yearly comprehensive energy data. This collection of energy balances is very large. This article provides a brief description of energy supply and consumption, using statistics summarized in tables, of the countries and regions that produce and consume most.
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