View article

Wind power is a renewable source of great value for the sustainable development of society in the context of global environmental changes. This power source features many advantages such as accessibility, inexhaustibility and sustainability, and its harvest and conversion have experienced a rapid growth in both developed and developing countries. The present study aims to geographically analyze the distribution and intensity of onshore wind resources (assessed using the wind power density parameter) globally, continentally and nationally. Using the most recent and detailed global spatial data on wind power density, which were classified after NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) in seven potential classes, our results showed that, globally, there are five major hotspots of abundant wind resources, delimited based on the large-scale presence of the most favourable potential classes, i.e. Excellent …