Eastern Oklahoma is generally poor for this purpose although some of the ridgetops of the southeastern mountains might be suitable. It can be seen that not all of the best areas of wind power are well served by transmission lines. In Oklahoma, wind power represents a potentially important resource to some tribes. The maps show Oklahoma s surface to have somewhat lesser wind than estimated by the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States. The patterns shown will remain the same in the final models.
Important findings are that Oklahoma has significant differences in wind power over the state.
Previous studies appear to have overestimated the wind resource of eastern Oklahoma. Western Oklahoma has an excellent wind resource, yet not all of western Oklahoma is equally suitable. We will soon begin a numerical analysis of our products in order to establish levels of confidence for each product for each portion of the state. Given the quality control and spatial density of the Mesonetwork wind data we are confident that this analysis will confirm our final products as being of high quality. Additionally, we will be making seasonal runs to provide an increased perspective on dependability of the wind resource throughout the state.