A continuously updated, geospatially rectified database of utility-scale wind turbines in the United States

• Published in: Scientific data Vol. 7; no. 1
• Main Authors: Rand, Joseph T., Kramer, Louisa A., Garrity, Christopher P., Hoen, Ben D., Diffendorfer, Jay E., Hunt, Hannah E., Spears, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom Nature Publishing Group 13-01-2020
• Subjects: energy and society; energy modelling; power stations; WIND ENERGY
• ISSN: 2052-4463; 2052-4463

Abstract
Over 60,000 utility-scale wind turbines are installed in the United States as of October, 2019, representing over 97 gigawatts of electric power capacity; US wind turbine installations continue to grow at a rapid pace. Yet, until April 2018, no publicly-available, regularly updated data source existed to describe those turbines and their locations. Under a cooperative research and development agreement, analysts from three organizations collaborated to develop and release the United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) - a publicly available, continuously updated, spatially rectified data source of locations and attributes of utility-scale wind turbines in the United States. Technical specifications and wind facility data, incorporated from five sources, undergo rigorous quality control. The location of each turbine is visually verified using high-resolution aerial imagery. The quarterly-updated data are available in a variety of formats, including an interactive web application, comma-separated values (CSV), shapefile, and application programming interface (API). The data are used widely by academic researchers, engineers and developers from wind energy companies, government agencies, planners, educators, and the general public.