Windtane contour map of the state of Texas

• The paper shows a new style of wind power map for the state of Texas using ArcGIS.
• A new type of wind map is developed from the Texas wind power data.
• The paper represents the quality of the wind (wind and tane) over various heights.
• The Windtane map aids wind farm developers the most cost effective wind farms.

With the expansion of wind energy development, there is a need to update wind data periodically for the state of Texas for developers and landowners to see if their properties could support wind turbines. This study presents an updated wind power map and a Windtane contour map of the state of Texas. The Windtane map shows the height above ground level needed to reach a baseline wind power level of 350 W/m2. This level is where the middle of class 3 wind power occurs and is widely considered to be the lower limit of the annual power level fort wind turbines to be economically viable for installation. The Windtane map using ArcGIS can be reconfigured to represent different power levels if need to. Both maps use a ‘certainty zone’ concept to constrain the areas where wind power is projected and to give increased confidence in the data to those areas projected into.