The amount of energy available from wind is limited by the sites suitable for major wind installations. Think of this as being like hydroelectric power. Hydro plants can only be usefully located where there’s a significant water flow across a significant drop. Generally, a dam has to be built to create such a situation; Niagara Falls is one of the few exceptions. In the U.S., most of the good sites were developed decades ago.
The wind resource maps estimate the resource in terms of wind power classes ranging from class 1 (the lowest) to class 7 (the highest). Each class represents a range of mean wind power density. Areas designated class 3 or greater are suitable for most wind turbine applications, whereas class 2 areas are marginal
Looking a little further into the book, we find that almost (at least 90% of, making a quick visual estimate) the entire state of North Dakota, for example, is either class 4 or class 5. While this area is nevertheless marginal today, owing to low local power prices, the fact is that although wind energy is a site-specific technology, there is a much broader range of available sites than for hydro.
There are vast areas in the southwest and northwest regions of the United States that have developable wind resources. Most of these areas are not tied to highly populated areas by utility transmission lines and further, they have avoided costs for electric power of $0.03 – $0.04 per kWh. If transmission lines were built to allow ‘wheeling’ the energy to high population centers, and if avoided costs slowly rise to $0.05 – $0.06 per kWh, extensive windpower development would take place.
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