NREL Global Offshore Wind GIS Data
GIS data for offshore wind speed (meters/second) at a 90 meter height above surface level. The data is specified to Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). The wind resource is based on NOAA Blended Sea Winds and monthly wind speed at 30km resolution from 1987-2005, using a 0.11 wind shear to extrapolate 10m - 90m. Annual average greater than or equal to 10 months of data, no nulls.
The NOAA Blended Sea Winds dataset contains ocean surface vector winds and wind stresses gridded at 0.25 degrees. Multiple time resolutions are available: 6-hour, daily, and monthly. Wind speeds were generated from satellite observations; directions, from a combination of National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) data assimilation products.
Hub height is an important determinant of wind resource at a given location. Due to drag close to ground-level, wind speeds fall at lower altitudes. Over rough terrain, that drop can be precipitous, but there is substantial drag even over relatively smooth ocean surfaces. Wind speeds in the Blended Sea Winds database are at 10 m above ground level. To extrapolate them to 90m heights, a power-law wind-shear adjustment using a shear exponent of 0.11 was applied. The exponent value was chosen based on the guidance of Schwartz et al. (2010), who support its use for U.S. marine areas. The coarseness of the escalation assumption is regretful but necessary given this dataset.
There were some missing months in the dataset, especially at polar latitudes. For cells with at least 10 months of data, the 10-month average was considered as the annual average; for cells with fewer than 10 months of data, no resource was given. As those grid cells tended to be at extreme northern latitudes, and the missing months were generally in winter, it is assumed that the gaps are to be ice-caused and likely those sites are too icy for economic wind development.
For more up to date data please visit the "Wind Resource Database" link below.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - GIS data for offshore wind speed (meters/second) at a 90 meter height above surface level. The data is specified to Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). The wind resource is based on NOAA Blended Sea Winds and monthly wind speed at 30km resolution from 1987-2005, using a 0.11 wind shear to extrapolate 10m - 90m. Annual average greater than or equal to 10 months of data, no nulls.
The NOAA Blended Sea Winds dataset contains ocean surface vector winds and wind stresses gridded at 0.25 degrees. Multiple time resolutions are available: 6-hour, daily, and monthly. Wind speeds were generated from satellite observations; directions, from a combination of National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) data assimilation products.
Hub height is an important determinant of wind resource at a given location. Due to drag close to ground-level, wind speeds fall at lower altitudes. Over rough terrain, that drop can be precipitous, but there is substantial drag even over relatively smooth ocean surfaces. Wind speeds in the Blended Sea Winds database are at 10 m above ground level. To extrapolate them to 90m heights, a power-law wind-shear adjustment using a shear exponent of 0.11 was applied. The exponent value was chosen based on the guidance of Schwartz et al. (2010), who support its use for U.S. marine areas. The coarseness of the escalation assumption is regretful but necessary given this dataset.
There were some missing months in the dataset, especially at polar latitudes. For cells with at least 10 months of data, the 10-month average was considered as the annual average; for cells with fewer than 10 months of data, no resource was given. As those grid cells tended to be at extreme northern latitudes, and the missing months were generally in winter, it is assumed that the gaps are to be ice-caused and likely those sites are too icy for economic wind development.
For more up to date data please visit the "Wind Resource Database" link below.
AU - Langle, Nicholas
A2 - Heimiller, Donna
DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI)
DP - Open EI | National Laboratory of the Rockies
DO -
KW - GIS
KW - NOAA
KW - NREL
KW - global
KW - offshore
KW - wind
KW - wind speed
KW - 90 m
KW - blended sea winds
KW - hub height
KW - ocean
KW - data
KW - processed data
KW - wind resource
LA - English
DA - 2014/11/25
PY - 2014
PB - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
T1 - NREL Global Offshore Wind GIS Data
UR - https://data.openei.org/submissions/351
ER -
Langle, Nicholas, and Donna Heimiller. NREL Global Offshore Wind GIS Data. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 25 November, 2014, Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://data.openei.org/submissions/351.
Langle, N., & Heimiller, D. (2014). NREL Global Offshore Wind GIS Data. [Data set]. Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). National Renewable Energy Laboratory. https://data.openei.org/submissions/351
Langle, Nicholas and Donna Heimiller. NREL Global Offshore Wind GIS Data. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, November, 25, 2014. Distributed by Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://data.openei.org/submissions/351
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_351,
title = {NREL Global Offshore Wind GIS Data},
author = {Langle, Nicholas and Heimiller, Donna},
abstractNote = {GIS data for offshore wind speed (meters/second) at a 90 meter height above surface level. The data is specified to Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). The wind resource is based on NOAA Blended Sea Winds and monthly wind speed at 30km resolution from 1987-2005, using a 0.11 wind shear to extrapolate 10m - 90m. Annual average greater than or equal to 10 months of data, no nulls.
The NOAA Blended Sea Winds dataset contains ocean surface vector winds and wind stresses gridded at 0.25 degrees. Multiple time resolutions are available: 6-hour, daily, and monthly. Wind speeds were generated from satellite observations; directions, from a combination of National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) data assimilation products.
Hub height is an important determinant of wind resource at a given location. Due to drag close to ground-level, wind speeds fall at lower altitudes. Over rough terrain, that drop can be precipitous, but there is substantial drag even over relatively smooth ocean surfaces. Wind speeds in the Blended Sea Winds database are at 10 m above ground level. To extrapolate them to 90m heights, a power-law wind-shear adjustment using a shear exponent of 0.11 was applied. The exponent value was chosen based on the guidance of Schwartz et al. (2010), who support its use for U.S. marine areas. The coarseness of the escalation assumption is regretful but necessary given this dataset.
There were some missing months in the dataset, especially at polar latitudes. For cells with at least 10 months of data, the 10-month average was considered as the annual average; for cells with fewer than 10 months of data, no resource was given. As those grid cells tended to be at extreme northern latitudes, and the missing months were generally in winter, it is assumed that the gaps are to be ice-caused and likely those sites are too icy for economic wind development.
For more up to date data please visit the "Wind Resource Database" link below. },
url = {https://data.openei.org/submissions/351},
year = {2014},
howpublished = {Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI), National Renewable Energy Laboratory, https://data.openei.org/submissions/351},
note = {Accessed: 2026-08-18}
}
Details
Data from Nov 25, 2014
Last updated Oct 7, 2025
Submitted Nov 25, 2014
Organization
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Contact
Donna Heimiller
Authors
Research Areas
Keywords
GIS, NOAA, NREL, global, offshore, wind, wind speed, 90 m, blended sea winds, hub height, ocean, data, processed data, wind resourceDOE Project Details
Project Name Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI)
Project Number 52942
