Eoltech, a consultancy specialising in wind and solar resource assessment, has released the findings of a new study aimed at assessing the variations in the global wind resource over the last 15 years. The data indicate that worldwide wind power production is highly predictable, with annual variations remaining within a range of ±3%.These results are based on the irec index, which is a wind energy index covering 80% of the world’s onshore wind farms installed as of 2023. The study combines the irec wind energy indexes that Eoltech releases monthly for the 300 geographical areas worldwide with the highest number of farms. By aggregating and weighting this data, Eoltech was able to generate both a “Global” and a “European” wind energy index, providing an overview of global wind resource trends over the past 15 years. The Global Index covers geographical areas hosting approximately 80% of the world’s operating onshore wind farms as of 2023, while the European Index covers 97% of the continent’s operating wind farms. The European Index reveals that wind resource annual variations are within a range of ±7% in Europe, compared to ±3% worldwide. The irec design incorporates ERA5 data, one of the latest climate reanalysis datasets produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
