Wind Map of Western Europe

Wind Resources at 50 (45) m Above Ground Level

Colour

Sheltered terrain

Open plain

At a sea coast

Open sea

Hills and ridges

How to Read the Wind Map of Western Europe

This wind map of Western Europe was originally published as part of the
European Wind Atlas. The details on how to interpret the colours are given
in the legend above. Please note that the data for Norway, Sweden and
Finland are from a later study, and are calculated for 45 m height above
ground level, and assume an open plain.
The purple zones are the areas with the strongest winds while the blue
zones have the weakest winds. The dividing lines between the different
zones are not as sharp as they appear on the map. In reality, the areas tend to
blend smoothly into one another.
You should note, however, that the colours on the map assume that the
globe is round without obstacles to the wind, speed up effects, or varying
roughness of the terrain. You may therefore easily find good, windy sites for
wind turbines on hills and ridges in, say the yellow or green areas of the
map, while you have little wind in sheltered terrain in the purple areas.

The Power of the Wind

In case you cannot explain why the calculated mean power of the wind in
the table is approximately twice the power of the wind at the given mean
wind speed, you should read the four to six pages starting with the Weibull
Distribution.

Reality is More Complicated

Actual local differences in the terrain will mean that the picture will be
much more complicated, if we take a closer look. As an example, we will
now take a closeup view of Denmark on the next page.

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Copyright 1999 Soren Krohn
Updated 6 August 2000
http://www.windpower.org/tour/wres/euromap.htm

Wind Map of Denmark

How to Read the Wind Map of Denmark

This unique map of Danish wind speeds takes local terrain

(speed up effects) and roughness into account. It shows a
much more detailed picture of wind conditions than we
saw on the previous page. We can clearly see that West
and Southwest are the prevailing wind direction in
Denmark, since West and Southwest facing coastal sites
have by far the highest energy content of the wind (the red
and yellow areas).
The map is actually a very high resolution map, where
the area of the whole country (44,000 km2 area) was divided into 1.1 million
squares 200 by 200 m each (220 by 220 yards), and the mean wind speed
was calculated for each square. You may download the map in various
resolutions from the web site of Energy & Environmental Data in Denmark,
if you wish (it is also available on CD-ROM).

Using the Wind Map for Planning

This wind map was developed to assist the Danish municipalities in their
planning (zoning) work for wind turbines. Each municipality in Denmark is
responsible for allocating suitable areas for wind turbines in order that the
Government may fulfill its plans to supply 50% of the country's electricity
consumption by wind energy in 2030.

Using the Wind Map for Wind Prospecting

The map is obviously also a gift to wind project developers, who can see the
(probable) best wind fields in the country directly. One could therefore
hardly imagine it being financed and published by any other institution than
a government.
The map, however, is not sufficient for actually locating a wind turbine,
since it was generated mechanically, without detailed verification in the
terrain. In order to make proper calculation of annual electricity output one
would have to go to the prospective site and verify e.g. the roughness and
locate obstacles and check for new buildings, trees etc.

State of the Art Methods of Wind Assessment

This map was produced for the Danish Energy Agency by Energy &
Environmental Data, a wind energy software and consultancy firm in
collaboration with the Wind Energy Department of Risoe National
Laboratory, which developed the basic fluid dynamics software used for the
wind calculations, the WAsP programme.
Calculating such a detailed wind map of a large area is actually an
enormous task: The map was made on the basis of extremely detailed digital
maps at the scale of 1:25000. The maps in reality consist of 7 layers, with
one layer representing altitude contours (orography), another forests and
fences (and even individual large trees), a third layer buildings, a fourth
layer lakes and rivers etc. The programme that generates roughness data for
the WAsP programme determines terrain contours and contiguous areas of
forests, lakes, cities etc. in neighbouring squares of each square out to a
distance of 20,000 m in all wind directions.

The results were subsequently recalibrated using statistics from several

hundred wind turbines scattered throughout the country for which energy
output data are available. Thus it has been possible to compensate for the
fact that the mean wind speeds in Denmark tend to decrease, as we move
towards the East.

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Copyright 2000 Soren Krohn
Updated 6 August 2000
http://www.windpower.org/tour/wres/dkmap.htm