The global assessments presented reach varying conclusions about the relative technical potential for onshore wind energy among different regions. Differences in the regional results from these studies are due to differences in wind speed data and key input parameters, including the minimum wind speed assumed to be exploitable, land use constraints, density of wind energy development, and assumed wind farm performance (Hoogwijk et al., 2004); differing regional categories also complicate comparisons. Nonetheless, the technical potentials in OECD North America and Eastern Europe/Eurasia are found to be particularly sizable, whereas some areas of non-OECD Asia andOECD Europe appear to have more limited onshore technical potential. Visual inspection of a global wind resource map with a 5- by 5-km resolution, also demonstrates limited technical potential in certain areas of Latin America and Africa, though other portions of those continents have significant technical potential. Caution is required in interpreting these results, however, as other studies find significantly different regional allocations of global technical potential, and more detailed country and regional assessments have reached differing conclusions about, for example, the wind energy resource in East Asia and other regions.
