The Wind Resource Winds are caused by differential heating of the earth's surface by the sun. Every location on the planet experiences wind, but the absolute amount of wind in any one area is highly variable. In order to determine the magnitude of wind power available in a region, maps of average wind speeds must be developed. An example of a wind speed map is shown in Figure 1. The wind speed contour lines on the map show that the areas with the highest average wind speed in Ontario are around the shores of the Great Lakes, and near Sudbury.
Wind speed is also very dependant uponelevation above ground level.
This is why most wind turbines are situated on the top of tall towers. The average wind speed of a site is a very important factor in determining the cost of electricity generated from wind turbines. This is because the amount of energy which can be captured by a wind turbine increases as the cube of wind velocity. The more electricity a single wind turbine can generate in a year, the more economical it is to operate. This is because the costs of wind generated electricity are mainly the costs of manufacturing the wind turbines.