Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkits

The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit is an update and expansion of the Eastern Wind Integration Data Set and Western Wind Integration Data Set. It supports the next generation of wind integration studies.

The WIND Toolkit Long-term Ensemble Dataset (WTK-LED) further enhances wind modeling by combining offshore and continental datasets and by quantifying model uncertainty.

These datasets support the next generation of wind integration studies and energy forecasting tools. Both toolkits have been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Wind Energy Technologies Office.

The WIND Toolkit, which was created through the collaborative efforts of NREL and 3TIER, includes instantaneous meteorological conditions from computer model output and calculated turbine power for more than 126,000 sites in the continental United States for the years 2007–2013. It features three datasets:

  • The meteorological dataset includes basic information on the weather conditions in each 2-km x 2-km grid cell. The meteorological dataset also includes parameters such as wind profiles, atmospheric stability, and solar radiation data in those cells.
  • The power dataset was created using wind data at 100-meter hub height and site-appropriate turbine power curves to estimate the power produced at each of the turbine sites.
  • The forecast dataset includes forecasts for 1-hour, 4-hour, 6-hour, and 24-hour forecast horizons.

WTK-LED features 2–4-km spatial resolution and 5-minute to hourly temporal resolution for offshore and land-based wind in the continental United States, Hawaii, and Alaska. It uses ensemble-based modeling for uncertainty quantification.

WIND Toolkit Resources

The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit in the NREL Wind Prospector

The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit, Applied Energy (2015)

Overview and Meteorological Validation of the Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit, NREL Technical Report (2015)

Validation of Power Output for WIND Toolkit Data, NREL Technical Report (2014)

Wind Toolkit Forum, Ask questions, get information, share tips

Map of North America wind resource with processed weather modeling data domains.

WIND Toolkit coverage and analysis regions

The WIND Toolkit includes instantaneous meteorological conditions from computer model output and calculated turbine power for more than 126,000 sites in the continental United States for the years 2007–2013. It features three data sets:

  • The meteorological data set includes basic information on the weather conditions in each 2-km x 2-km grid cell. The meteorological data set also includes parameters such as wind profiles, atmospheric stability, and solar radiation data in those cells. This complete data set is not yet publicly available, though some of the data is made available with the power data set.
  • The power data set was created using the wind data at 100-meter hub height and site-appropriate turbine power curves to estimate the power produced at each of the turbine sites.
  • The forecast data set includes forecasts for 1-hour, 4-hour, 6-hour, and 24-hour forecast horizons.

The WIND Toolkit has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Wind and Water Power Technologies Office and was created through the collaborative efforts of NREL and 3TIER.

Access the Data

Because of the size of the full WIND Toolkit, only the following data subsets are available for user access and download. These sets are tailored to the needs of common applications.

Techno-Economic Summary and Index

This 10-MB subset contains summarized statistics for 120,000 points within the continental U.S. selected for their wind resource. It can be downloaded directly through the NREL Data Catalog.

Offshore Summary Dataset

This dataset contains summary statistics for offshore wind resources (Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf) for the continental United States derived from the WIND Toolkit. These statistical summaries are aligned to actual offshore lease blocks and were developed under contract by NREL for the Bureau of Oceanic Energy Management.

For more information and to download this data, visit the WIND Toolkit Offshore Summary Dataset  on Data.gov.

Techno-Economic WIND Toolkit

This 2-TB subset contains instantaneous 5-minute resolution model output data for 7 years at 120,000 points within the continental U.S. selected for their wind resource. This set contains power estimates along with a subset of atmospheric variables (e.g., 100-meter wind speed). Aligned forecast data are also available at 1-hour resolution for 1, 4, 6, and 24 hours ahead.

For small areas and individual points:

  1. Access the Wind Toolkit via the Wind Prospector interface.
  2. Zoom to the location you are interested in, and choose a data point.
  3. Select the Analysis & Downloads tab at the top of the left column.
  4. Select the box for Wind Resource Data Download (Point), and click on the point you want.
  5. Fill in the Data Download Information Form.
  6. Fill in the Data Download Wizard, and select the years, attributes, and options you want. Watch the download indicator at the bottom; it should be blue. If it's not, you'll need to reduce the duration.
  7. A link to the data download will arrive by email.
  8. Click the link to download the data.

For slightly larger areas, download the data through Globus.

  1. Follow the instructions above to identify the area and period you want.
  2. Select the locations, temporal range, and attributes using the draw tool.
  3. An email will be sent indicating that the data is ready for download.
  4. Follow the instructions below to download the data.

See full instructions for Wind Toolkit data downloads via API from NREL's Developer Network.

  1. Download the summary and index through the NREL Data Catalog.
  2. Download the power data through Globus.
  3. Download the forecast data through Globus. 

The PyWTK library provides a python interface and API for techno-economic data. This library can access the data locally once transferred from S3 or via Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda using data in AWS S3 directly.

https://github.com/NREL/pywtk/

To use AWS Lambda, start by cloning the pywtk repo:

git clone https://github.com/nrel/pywtk

Install Anaconda python (https://www.continuum.io/downloads) and the required packages and start a pywtk environment.

In pywtk directory:

conda env update -n pywtk
source activate pywtk
python setup.py install

Start a jupyter notebook with:

jupyter notebook --no-browser

In your browser, you can paste the output URL from Jupyter notebook and browse to the site_retrieval_lambda.ipynb notebook.

This will give you an interface for programming python and downloading site data. The above notebook has been constructed as an example that creates a CSV file that can be used within Matlab.

Gridded Atmospheric WIND Toolkit

This 50-TB subset contains instantaneous 1-hour resolution model output data for 7 years on a uniform 2-km grid that covers the continental U.S., the Baja Peninsula, and parts of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. NREL has made the entire Gridded Atmospheric WIND Toolkit available using an API and data hosted using Amazon cloud services.

The Highly Scalable Data Service (HSDS) provides access to the entire 50-TB gridded data with a RESTful JSON API and supporting Python library developed to deliver the data to users in a way that is similar to accessing data locally with the HDF5 library.

To get started, example notebooks that demonstrate how to access the data are available at https://github.com/NREL/hsds-examples.

You can make a local copy (clone) of this repository using git:

git clone https://github.com/NREL/hsds-examples

An interactive visualization allows users to explore the entire 7 years of wind toolkit data at any resolution.

The source code behind this application is available for reference for those who may wish to develop their own web-based applications that use the HSDS API.

Processed Weather Modeling (WRF) Outputs

This 0.5-PB subset contains instantaneous 5-minute resolution model output data for 7 years on a uniform 2-km grid. Because of the size of this dataset, it is not publicly available at this time. Researchers who need full-resolution data from the WIND Toolkit should submit a detailed request using the contact information below.

Cite the Data

Users of the WIND Toolkit should use the following citations:

Draxl, C., B.M. Hodge, A. Clifton, and J. McCaa. 2015. Overview and Meteorological Validation of the Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit (Technical Report, NREL/TP-5000-61740). Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Draxl, C., B.M. Hodge, A. Clifton, and J. McCaa. 2015. "The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit." Applied Energy 151: 355366.

King, J., A. Clifton, and B.M. Hodge. 2014. Validation of Power Output for the WIND Toolkit (Technical Report, NREL/TP-5D00-61714). Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Contact

The WIND Toolkit Team

 WINDtoolkit@nrel.gov |  Wind Toolkit Forum

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