Our wind rank indicates areas throughout the world that are most windy and least windy. However, a wind rank means different things for different scales of renewable energy development and is not the only important metric for whether or not a given location is good for wind development. The logistical problems of sighting a wind farm on the top of Mt. Everest, for example, makes a project in that location absurd, even though it is very windy.

Utility Scale
To better answer the question "What is a good wind rank?" we have assembled a list of utility scale projects and their associated wind rank. The histogram plot below shows that the most common wind rank for projects is between 80% and 90%, with 4 out of 5 wind projects having a rank higher than 65%.

Figure 1

Community Scale and Small Wind
The economics of community and small wind are fundamentally different in many ways from utility scale concerns. High wind speed is the primary indicator of whether a given project or small wind turbine will be effective at producing electricity. However, for grid connected systems, net metering or using wind to offset electricity use at large facilities means that community and small wind projects can be sited in areas that may not make sense for a utility scale wind farm.