The ability to assess and characterize available wind resources is critical to the development, siting, and operation of a wind plant.

DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office, which supports efforts to accurately define, measure, and forecast the nation’s land-based and offshore wind resources, recently announced a series of new and improved regional wind resource maps for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.

Wind resource maps for the Great Lakes region are planned for a release by the end of the year, with more maps to follow. All will be available on WINDExchange.

Learn more about wind resource maps, how they serve as both art and science, and meet a cartographer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.