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Visual Impact Assessment of the Existing Land-based Wind Turbine Fleet of the Contiguous United States

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This data submission contains GIS raster datasets mapping the visual impacts of the land-based wind turbine fleet in the Contiguous United States (CONUS). Two datasets are included, each presenting a different quantification of visual impacts:

1. Cumulative visual magnitude, measured as the percentage of a hypothetical observer's field of view that is occupied by all nearby wind turbines.
2. Visual impact rating, a human-interpretable estimate of the visual impacts ranging from "No Impact" to "Very High Impact", based on calibration to field-based ratings from trained observers.

Each dataset is 30m in resolution, covers the full extent of the CONUS, and is provided in the ESRI:102003 coordinate reference system.

For additional details and citation, please refer to the Gleason et al. (2025) paper linked below, which includes information on the methodology used to derive these datasets, how to interpret their values, and other relevant details and limitations.

Gleason, M., Lopez, A., Rivers, M., 2025. Mapping and characterizing the visual impacts of the existing US wind turbine fleet. Applied Energy 378, 124801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.124801

Citation Formats

TY - DATA AB - This data submission contains GIS raster datasets mapping the visual impacts of the land-based wind turbine fleet in the Contiguous United States (CONUS). Two datasets are included, each presenting a different quantification of visual impacts: 1. Cumulative visual magnitude, measured as the percentage of a hypothetical observer's field of view that is occupied by all nearby wind turbines. 2. Visual impact rating, a human-interpretable estimate of the visual impacts ranging from "No Impact" to "Very High Impact", based on calibration to field-based ratings from trained observers. Each dataset is 30m in resolution, covers the full extent of the CONUS, and is provided in the ESRI:102003 coordinate reference system. For additional details and citation, please refer to the Gleason et al. (2025) paper linked below, which includes information on the methodology used to derive these datasets, how to interpret their values, and other relevant details and limitations. Gleason, M., Lopez, A., Rivers, M., 2025. Mapping and characterizing the visual impacts of the existing US wind turbine fleet. Applied Energy 378, 124801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.124801 AU - Gleason, Michael A2 - Lopez, Anthony A3 - Rivers, Marie DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI) DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory DO - KW - SitingLab KW - wind energy KW - onshore wind KW - wind turbines KW - visual impact assessment KW - viewsheds KW - GIS KW - 3D simulation KW - United States KW - CONUS KW - wind KW - land-based LA - English DA - 2024/03/19 PY - 2024 PB - National Renewable Energy Lab T1 - Visual Impact Assessment of the Existing Land-based Wind Turbine Fleet of the Contiguous United States UR - https://data.openei.org/submissions/8370 ER -
Export Citation to RIS
Gleason, Michael, et al. Visual Impact Assessment of the Existing Land-based Wind Turbine Fleet of the Contiguous United States. National Renewable Energy Lab, 19 March, 2024, Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://data.openei.org/submissions/8370.
Gleason, M., Lopez, A., & Rivers, M. (2024). Visual Impact Assessment of the Existing Land-based Wind Turbine Fleet of the Contiguous United States. [Data set]. Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). National Renewable Energy Lab. https://data.openei.org/submissions/8370
Gleason, Michael, Anthony Lopez, and Marie Rivers. Visual Impact Assessment of the Existing Land-based Wind Turbine Fleet of the Contiguous United States. National Renewable Energy Lab, March, 19, 2024. Distributed by Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://data.openei.org/submissions/8370
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_8370, title = {Visual Impact Assessment of the Existing Land-based Wind Turbine Fleet of the Contiguous United States}, author = {Gleason, Michael and Lopez, Anthony and Rivers, Marie}, abstractNote = {This data submission contains GIS raster datasets mapping the visual impacts of the land-based wind turbine fleet in the Contiguous United States (CONUS). Two datasets are included, each presenting a different quantification of visual impacts:

1. Cumulative visual magnitude, measured as the percentage of a hypothetical observer's field of view that is occupied by all nearby wind turbines.
2. Visual impact rating, a human-interpretable estimate of the visual impacts ranging from "No Impact" to "Very High Impact", based on calibration to field-based ratings from trained observers.

Each dataset is 30m in resolution, covers the full extent of the CONUS, and is provided in the ESRI:102003 coordinate reference system.

For additional details and citation, please refer to the Gleason et al. (2025) paper linked below, which includes information on the methodology used to derive these datasets, how to interpret their values, and other relevant details and limitations.

Gleason, M., Lopez, A., Rivers, M., 2025. Mapping and characterizing the visual impacts of the existing US wind turbine fleet. Applied Energy 378, 124801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.124801

}, url = {https://data.openei.org/submissions/8370}, year = {2024}, howpublished = {Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI), National Renewable Energy Lab, https://data.openei.org/submissions/8370}, note = {Accessed: 2025-05-01} }

Details

Data from Mar 19, 2024

Last updated Mar 13, 2025

Submitted Mar 11, 2025

Organization

National Renewable Energy Lab

Contact

Michael Gleason

Authors

Michael Gleason

National Renewable Energy Lab

Anthony Lopez

National Renewable Energy Lab

Marie Rivers

National Renewable Energy Lab

DOE Project Details

Project Name Spatial Analysis for Wind Technology Development

Project Number 34877

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