West Virginia's Average Annual Wind Speed (click here)
The Department of Energy's Wind Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a wind resource map for the state of West Virginia. The wind resource map shows the predicted mean annual wind speeds at 80-m height. Presented at a spatial resolution of about 2 km (interpolated to a finer scale for display). Areas with annual average wind speeds around 6.5 m/s and greater at 80-m height are generally considered to have suitable wind resource for wind development.
This resource map (click here) shows estimates of wind power density at 50 m above the ground and depicts the resource that could be used for community-scale wind development using wind turbines at 50-60-m hub heights.
As a renewable resource, wind was classified according to wind power classes, which were based on wind speed frequency distributions and air density. These classes ranged from Class 1 (the lowest) to Class 7 (the highest). In general, at a 50-m height, wind power Class 4 or higher could have been useful for generating wind power with turbines in the 250-kW to 750-kW rating. Given the advances in technology, resources below Class 4 may now be suitable for the new midsize wind turbines. In recognition of these continuing advancements in wind energy technologies and the ability for the current generation of wind turbines to extract cost competitive wind energy from lower wind speeds the Energy Department has moved away from the wind power classification system and now reports wind speeds only.
This map indicates that West Virginia has wind resources consistent with community-scale production. The good-to-excellent wind resource areas are concentrated on ridge crests in the eastern part of the state just south of a Martinsburg-Clarksburg line. There are scattered areas along these ridge crests that are estimated to have outstanding-to-superb resource.
West Virginia residents dependent on coal mining can continue to pretend they have a future in coal mining if only the right US Congress mix was in place to protect them. The enemy of the coal community is not the federal government and very necessary an Supreme Court mandated regulations; it is the coal industry itself.
When are editorials in West Virginia going to finally educate their subscribers about the PAST and FUTURE of coal mining. There is no future of employment in coal mining. Those opportunities were first lost in the 1960s and the numbers of jobs keeps following. It is due to the mechanization of coal mining.
There are far better opportunities for the people of West Virginia in 21st century energy production!
The radio preachers can stop praying for dead coal miners and thank god for wind.
