Estimates of wind electric potential and available windy land area in the contiguous United States, calculated in 1991, have been revised by incorporating actual data on the distribution of environmental exclusion areas where wind energy development would be prohibited or severely restricted. The new gridded data base with actual environmental exclusion areas, in combination with a 'moderate' land-use scenario, is the basis for developing the first gridded maps of available windy land and wind electric potential. Gridded maps for the 48 contiguous states show the estimated windy land area and electric potential for each grid cell (1/40 latitude by 1/30 longitude). These new maps show the distribution of the estimated wind electric potential and available windy land within an individual state, unlike previous national maps that only show estimates of the total wind electric potential for the state as a whole. While changes for some individual states are fairly large (in percentage), on a national basis, the estimated windy land area and wind electric potential are only about 1% to 2% higher than estimated in 1991.
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