Researchers have created an interactive web tool to estimate the amount of energy that could be generated by wind (or solar) farms at any location. The tool, called Renewables.ninja, aims to make the task of predicting renewable output easier for both academics and industry.
The creators, from Imperial College London and ETH Zürich, have already used it to estimate current Europe-wide wind output. To test the model, Dr Iain Staffell, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, and Dr Stefan Pfenninger, who is now at ETH Zürich, have used Renewables.ninja to estimate the productivity of all wind farms planned or under construction in Europe for the next 20 years. Renewables.ninja uses 30 years of observed and modelled weather data from organisations such as NASA to predict the wind speed likely to influence turbines.