Windpower Resource Screening for The Western U.S. Region*

Abstract

This article describes a comprehensive screening study performed
in 2007 to identify wind energy resources in the 14-state Western Electric
Coordinating Council (WECC). WECC comprises the entire Western In-
terconnection. With a footprint of 1.8 million square miles within the U.S.,
two Canadian provinces, and Baja Norte, Mexico, WECC offers significant
but widely dispersed potential for farming wind resources. The methodol-
ogy described in this article is novel but tested in application.
Using resource maps of greatest wind potential, electric generation
is incrementally increased to reach a regional 25% penetration target.
This approach allows overloaded transmission corridors to be identi-
fied that will require investment to reliably ship power to the areas of
greatest demand growth. In this study, resolution is based on 1 km cells.
Explicit consideration is given to reserve transmission capacity to esti-
mate WECC’s ability to move power from remote sites. Wind resource
assumptions are based on National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) wind maps, Class 3 or higher (mean annual wind speeds = 6.9
m/s at 80 m). The wind resource is converted on the basis of generating
clusters of 77-meter diameter, 1.5-MWe turbines with a capacity factor
of 48%. Limits are placed on distance to load centers to avoid transmis-
sion congestion and to implicitly acknowledge an economic breakeven
towards lower speeds and closer distance.