Global wind atlas

The Global Wind Atlas provides a new public-domain dataset of wind resources for the whole world, accounting for high resolution effects. The wind atlas data will be the most appropriate wind resource dataset available for the needs of policy makers, energy planners and the Integrated Assessment Modelling (IAM) community. The method employs large-scale global meteorological datasets, which are downloaded to high-resolution wind resource datasets via a so-called generalization process, and microscale modelling using the WAsP program developed by DTU Wind Energy. The latest meteorological and topographical datasets will be used. This project links the data and models together to create a much-needed new dataset. The intention of creating the Global Wind Atlas is not to provide a substitute for individual country-based wind atlases or wind resource assessment conducted commercially for wind farm developers. Instead, wind resources for regions and countries will be readily accessible, via GIS and web tools, such that analyses of the social and economic effects of wind energy deployment can be accomplished. Moreover the new dataset will give more accurate and reliable input for energy planners working on the future energy mix and approaches for climate mitigation under different climate change scenarios.