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Latin America >> Wind Wind Energy Potential
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Map of mean 80-m wind speeds for
year 2000
Wind speeds are calculated at 80 m, the hub height of modern, 77-m diameter,
1500 kW turbines. Since relatively few observations are available at 80 m, the
Least Square extrapolation technique is utilized and revised here to obtain estimates
of wind speeds at 80 m given observed wind speeds at 10 m (widely available) and
a network of sounding stations. Tower data from the Kennedy Space Center
(Florida) were used to validate the results. Globally, ~13% of all reporting stations
experience annual mean wind speeds ≥ 6.9 m/s at 80 m (i.e., wind power class
3 or greater) and can therefore be considered suitable for low-cost wind power
generation.
This estimate is believed to be conservative. Areas with great
potential are found in at the southern tip of the South American continent. http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/winds/global_winds.html
Availability of standardized
evaluations of the wind energy potential
Wind energy potential can not easily be shown in simple overwiew maps. The
map indicates the countries for which wind energy evaluations are available. These
have been carried out by means of a standardized method developped by the danish
Risų Laboratory. http://www.energie-atlas.ch/wi-100.htm
CountriesAntigua and Barbuda | Argentina
| Bahamas | Barbados | Belize | Brazil | Bolivia
| Chile | Colombia | Costa Rica | Cuba
| Dominica | Dominican Republic
| Ecuador | El Salvador | French Guayana
| Grenada | Guatemala | Guyana | Haiti | Honduras
| Jamaica | Mexico | Nicaragua
| Panama | Paraguay | Peru | Saint Kitts and
Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Suriname | Trinidad Tobago
| Uruguay | Venezuela
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