Wind Energy

What is Wind Energy?

Wind is caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, variations in the earth's surface, and rotation of the earth. Mountains, bodies of water, and vegetation all influence wind flow patterns. Wind energy (or wind power) describes the process by which wind is used to generate electricity. Wind turbines convert the energy in wind to electricity by rotating propeller-like blades around a rotor. The rotor turns the drive shaft, which turns an electric generator. Three key factors affect the energy a turbine can harness from the wind: wind speed, air density, and swept area. Mechanical power can also be utilized directly for specific tasks such as pumping water. The U.S. Department of Energy developed a short wind power animation that provides an overview of how a wind turbine works and describes the wind resources in the United States.

Wind on OpenEI

Open Energy Data Initiative

Data Repository
Enabling research, collaboration, and transparency by providing open access to energy data and information. OEDI provides free access to data generated from efforts funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and supporting projects and partnerships.

Visit OEDI

Wind Workforce

Workforce
A forum for collaboration and information sharing among those developing a workforce to support the domestic land-based and offshore wind industries.

Visit Wind Workforce

Wind for Schools

Education
The Wind for Schools project helps develop a future wind energy workforce by encouraging students at higher education institutions to join Wind Application Centers.

Visit Wind for Schools

Wind Applications

WINDExchange

Wind Resources
WINDExchange provides resources to help communities weigh the benefits and impacts of wind energy.

Blade Materials and Substructures Testing

Materials Database
A database of extensive testing and analysis on wind turbine blades and materials for marine energy (ME) devices in support of the industry and research communities.

The U.S. Wind Turbine Database

Turbine Database
The United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) provides the locations of land-based and offshore wind turbines in the United States, corresponding wind project information, and turbine technical specifications.

Tethys

Environmental Documents
Tethys hosts information and resources on the environmental effects of marine and wind energy development, including thousands of documents, educational resources, and online tools. Tethys also serves as the outreach and engagement platform for the international Ocean Energy Systems (OES) Environmental initiative.

Department of Energy Organizations

Wind Energy Technologies Office

DOE Office
The Wind Energy Technologies Office funds wind energy research and development (R&D) activities that enable and accelerate the innovations needed to advance wind energy systems.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory Wind

National Laboratory
NREL has pioneered many of the components and systems that have taken wind energy technologies to new heights, providing global leadership in fundamental wind energy science research, development, and validation activities.

Wind Technologies

The U.S. Department of Energy defines the scale of wind turbine technologies as follows: utility-scale is greater than 1 megawatt (MW) in size, mid-size turbines are 101 kilowatts (kW) to 1 MW in size, and small turbines are up to 100 kW in size. Distributed wind systems are defined as systems connected on the customer side of the meter (to meet the onsite load) or directly to the local grid (to support grid operations or offset large loads nearby). Small wind is characterized by local ownership and control and includes many distributed wind projects. Offshore wind projects, of course, capture the winds off the coasts and convert them to electricity while land-based wind energy harness the kinetic energy of wind moving over land. Learn more about the technology classes at the links below.

• Distributed Wind Energy
• Small Wind Guidebook
• Land-Based Wind Energy
• Offshore Wind Energy

References