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How We Estimate Wind Turbine Output
FindWind uses a five step process to estimate the output of a wind turbine at your site.
 We start with high-resolution wind data that was created for the U.S. Department of Energy in 1986 by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory
and is documented in the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States, October 1986.
This national wind resource data provides an estimate of the annual average wind resource for the United States with a resolution of 1/3 degree of latitude by 1/4 degree of longitude.
We also allow you to use more "up to date" data from commercial sites such as 3Tier and AWS Truwind.
The second step is to collect information about your site:
- Information about surrounding trees and buildings
- Information about your surrounding geography
- The range of possible tower heights
- Your current electric consumption and goals for your wind generator
From this, we generate a likely wind speed distribution, and estimate the wind-shear coefficient and site turbulence (which both have a significant effect on turbine output).
As a fourth step, you choose a number of wind turbines that might meet your needs
Finally, we calculate turbine power output for each wind speed "bin", while correcting for height and other factors.
The end result is the estimated power output per day, month and year, for each of the turbines selected
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