Arizona Wind Energy Assessment Executive SummaryArizona Wind Energy Assessment – April 2007
Arizona Wind Energy Assessment Executive Summary
Developable Windy Land and Economic Benefits:
Developable Windy Land:
Above are links to the Arizona Wind Energy Assessment reports for eight Arizona counties. For six of the counties, Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Graham, Mohave, and Navajo, the report contains both an analysis of the developable windy land and an economic benefits analysis. For Greenlee and Yavapai only the developable wind energy analysis is provided.
The amount of developable windy land in each county was determined in the first analysis. Based on the TrueWind map acquired by NAU in 2003, which is the best available representation of the Arizona wind resource, the windy land for each county was determined. An extensive geographic information system analysis was then used to exclude any land not appropriate for wind development. This included land use exclusions (i.e., National Park Service land), environmental exclusions (i.e., wetlands) and any land with slopes greater than 20% (expensive to develop). More details on the exclusions are described in the reports. The remaining land, developable windy land, is the windy land that may be accessible for wind energy development.
Some of this developable windy land is appropriate for development in the near term based upon site specific project economics, land access, and transmission access/availability. These reports made no attempt to apply these additional development criteria because they are project specific and subject to relatively rapid change, but rather assessed the developable wind resource that the state may access over a long term planning horizon (years to decades). In a long-term view, as our traditional energy resources become more costly and the wind turbine technology continues to improve, greater portions of the developable windy land will be appropriate for development based upon these project specific metrics (economics, land and transmission access). The developable windy land information thus is an estimate of the maximum one would expect could be developed in the long term.
The second analysis estimated the economic benefits that would occur within the county if a wind energy project were developed in that county. The benefits are quantified by the number of jobs, wages and salaries, and general economic output within the county as a result of the construction and operation of the wind energy project. The economic benefits reported are valid for wind energy projects in these counties that may occur in the near term (present day through the next several years). The magnitudes of the wind energy project sizes analyzed are typical of what one may expect to be built in Arizona in the near term.