What makes rural areas good places for wind farms? Wind farms are created based on power demands and the amount of wind that blows in an area. Resource maps indicate that some of the best places to fulfill wind energy demand are in rural areas.
A couple of things I know that developers look for are, of course, a lot of wind and there are some maps - wind resource maps - that are being developed, but they're in the very early stages Developers are like prospectors. They look around for places where you can see from the trees that there is an area with a lot of wind. So, a lot of wind and proximity to transmission lines as well as proximity to a load center - a place of demand where they are going to need a lot of electricity.
The traditional wind resource map that was developed around 1990 shows that places that you think of as windy are indeed the best wind resource areas. They tend to be in the middle of the country, especially up in North and South Dakota, but also the plains are really good wind resource areas. Then the mountainous regions in the west are also very good wind resource areas and then in some places in the coasts and other areas.
