About the New European Wind Atlas

Introduction

These web pages provide access to a broad selection of wind atlas datasets from the New European Wind Atlas project. More information about the project can be found on www.neweuropeanwindatlas.eu. The complete project encompassed accurate mapping of wind conditions, development and testing of the new methods of downscaling, and a series of atmospheric field experiments to validate the modelling.

Methodology

These web pages serve several kinds of map layers and datasets. The most important grouping of the map layers and datasets is into either mesoscale modelling outputs or microscale modelling outputs.

Mesoscale modelling

The mesoscale modelling covers the entire EU plus Turkey and 100 km offshore as well as the complete North and Baltic Seas. The WRF model was used in a NEWA consortium developed configuration, with a 3 km grid spacing and simulation period covering 30 years (1989-2018). Details can be found at this link.

In summary:

  • WRF version: modified v3.8.1 (PBL, icing)
  • Grid: 27 km → 9 km → 3 km; 61 vertical levels
  • 10 regions
  • 8-day runs incl. 24 h spin-up, spectral nudging in D1
  • MYNN PBL scheme (modified) + MO surface layer
  • Forcing: ERA5 reanalysis (0.3°)
  • OSTIA SST and sea-ice (1/12°)
  • Adaptive time step (where working)
  • CORINE 100 m land use data, USGS where CORINE not available
  • NOAH land surface model
  • Icing (WSM5 + icing code + sum of qcloud and qice)
  • Radiation time step = 12 minutes
  • 480 cores, IO Quilting (1 node used for output)

We acknowledge PRACE for awarding us access to MareNostrum at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Spain, on which the largest part of the mesoscale calculations were performed.

Microscale modelling

The microscale modelling was performed by DTU’s newly developed Cluster WAsP which can run linux clusters. The methodology is similar to that used in the Global Wind Atlas, except a finer 50 m calculation grid spacing is used. Downscaling from mesoscale to microscale is based on theWAsP wind atlas generalization methodology.

At the microscale, terrain is defined by elevation from the SRTM version 3 dataset supplemented with viewfinder data north of 60°N and roughness determined from the Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2018, Version 20 dataset with 100 m resolution, supplemented with ESA Climate Change Initiative Land Cover data from 2015 for regions outside of the CLC domain, and CLC 2012 for Turkey as the 2018 dataset was not available at the time of the simulation.

We acknowledge the DTU linux cluster facilities on which the microscale modelling was performed.

Functionalities

These web pages provide ways for user to display map layers, perform analysis and plot charts, and download data. A user can choose between five different user profiles in order to facilitate the users default selection of layers that are available. The user profiles are given for Educator, Researcher, Wind Farm Developer, Electricity System Operator and Policy Maker.

The layers can be displayed on user selected height levels and user time selections on some datasets, for example to cover a measurement period or other period of interest.

The layers can also be downloaded for selected areas, heights and time periods. The download can be commanded on the web pages, or executed by sending a request to the API.

Terms of use

The following terms and conditions, together with any documents they expressly incorporate by reference (collectively, “Terms of Use”), govern your access to, and use of, the New European Wind Atlas web services (“NEWA Web Services”). Please read the Terms of Use carefully before you start to use the NEWA Web Services. By using the NEWA Web Services, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by these Terms of Use, incorporated herein by reference. If you do not want to agree to these Terms of Use, you must not access the NEWA Web Services.

You are encouraged to use the NEWA Web Services to benefit yourself and others in creative ways. The Works are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, CC BY 4.0, except where expressly stated that another license applies.

Your use of the NEWA Web Services

You may use the NEWA Web Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms of Use. You are responsible to ensure that all persons who access the NEWA Web Services through your internet connection are aware of these Terms of Use and comply with them.

  • Use the NEWA Web Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the NEWA Web Services or interfere with any other party’s use of the NEWA Web Services;
  • Use any robot, spider or other automatic device, process or means to access the NEWA Web Services for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the NEWA Web Services;
  • Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the NEWA Web Services;
  • Introduce any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful;
  • Attempt to interfere with, damage or disrupt any parts of the NEWA Web Services, the servers on which the NEWA Web Services are stored, or any server, computer or database connected to the NEWA Web Services;
  • Attack the NEWA Web Services via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack;
  • Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the NEWA Web Services.

Attribution

By using the part of the atlas you agree to use the following citation text: [Data/information/map obtained from the] “New European Wind Atlas, a free, web-based application developed, owned and operated by the NEWA Consortium. For additional information see www.neweuropeanwindatlas.eu.

No Endorsement, No Association

You may link to NEWA Web Services, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it. You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part.

You may not publicly represent or imply that the NEWA Consortium is participating in, or has sponsored, approved or endorsed the manner or purpose of your use or reproduction of the NEWA Web Services. The NEWA Consortium retains all rights to prosecute, to the fullest extent of the law, any use of its Works in a manner that falsifies, misrepresents, disparages or fraudulently uses the Works, or disparages or harms the reputation of the NEWA Consortium.

No Use of Logos and Names

You may not use any trade-mark, official mark, official emblem or logo of the NEWA Consortium without the prior written permission of the NEWA Consortium. All other names and logos on the NEWA Web Services are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Links from the NEWA Web Services

If the NEWA Web Services contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your convenience only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to the NEWA Web Services, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such sites.

No Warranties

The NEWA Consortium reserves the right at any time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the NEWA Web Services, any means of accessing or utilizing the NEWA Web Services, at our sole discretion with or without prior notice to you. The NEWA Consortium may at its sole discretion, under any circumstances, for any or no reason whatsoever and with or without prior notice to you, terminate your access to the NEWA Web Services, any means of accessing or utilizing the NEWA Web Services. The NEWA Consortium disclaims all warranties of any kind related to the provision of the NEWA Web Services.

Exclusion of Liability

The NEWA Web Services are made available solely for general information purposes. The NEWA Consortium does not warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of the NEWA Web Services. Any reliance you place on the NEWA Web Services is strictly at your own risk. We disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such NEWA Web Services by you or any other visitor to the NEWA Web Services, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents. The NEWA Consortium shall not be responsible or liable to you for any loss or damage of any sort incurred by you in connection with your use of the Works. You acknowledge that these Terms of Use constitute a non-exclusive agreement. The NEWA Consortium may develop products or services that compete with products or services that you offer without incurring any liability.

Disclaimers

The NEWA Consortium shall not be held responsible for the accuracy and/or completeness of the data and shall not be liable for any errors or omissions. It is strongly advised that the data be limited to use in informing policy discussions on the subject, and/or in creating services that better educate on the viability of wind development in areas of interest. As such, neither the NEWA Consortium nor any sponsors will be liable for any damages related to the use of the maps for financial commitments or any similar cases.

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Release notes

NEWA 1.1 (June 2022)

NEWA 1.1 is a version with some new functionalities and improvements of existing ones. Features include:

  • Downloads of microscale datasets
  • Improved aggregated download of time series data for mesoscale datasets
  • Improved legend re-scale and custom color scale with an adjustable central value for diverging color scales
  • Improvement of loading layers on the map
  • Release notes

We are still busy calculating the mesoscale data for historical years. Keep an eye on the NEWA website for more available years.

NEWA 1.0 (June 2019)

NEWA 1.0 was the first release. Features included in this first version were:

  • Map layers of mesoscale and microscale data
  • Plots and downloads of mesoscale datasets
  • Drawing of custom areas
  • Different user types
  • Basic map functionalities

Credits

Funding

The New European Wind Atlas (NEWA) is an ERANET+ project, which is funded by the European Commission and 9 national funding agencies with a total budget of 13.1 million euros:

  • Danish Energy Agency (DEA) | Denmark
  • German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) | Germany
  • (DGO4) Department of Energy and Sustainable Building (SPW) | Belgium - W
  • The government agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (VALIO) | Belgium -F
  • Latvian Academy of Sciences (LAS) | Latvia
  • Swedish Energy Agency (SWEA) | Sweden
  • Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) | Portugal
  • The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) | Turkey
  • Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) | Spain

Partners

The team behind NEWA consists of 30 partners from 8 European countries.