Wind Resource Maps for USA, Puerto Rico & US Virgin Islands

Helpful wind speed resources for assessing the viability of a small wind system for your location in the United States.

Above is a map showing the predicted average annual wind speed at 30 meters above the ground in the United States at a spatial resolution of 2 km. Areas with average wind speeds of at least 4.5 meters per second (10 mph) and good exposure to those winds are generally considered to be good locations for small wind power systems, providing the turbine(s) can be installed at least 15 meters above the ground and at least 30 feet above local obstructions (tress, buildings, etc.)

Higher is almost always better when it comes to installing small wind turbines, as you’ll see from the map below, which shows average annual wind speed at 80 meters above the ground.

Wind Power Potential Map for Puerto Rico & US Virgin Islands

The map below shows wind speed estimates for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands at 50 meters above the ground. The map suggests that the wind resources in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have wind resources suitable primarily for offshore community-scale production.

Maps courtesy of WINDExchange, a resource of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office. Wind speeds indicated on this map are model-derived estimates that may not represent the true wind resource at any given location. Small terrain features, vegetation, buildings, and atmospheric effects can cause differences between actual wind speeds and the estimates on these maps.