A Wind Lover's Dream: All 57,636 U.S. Wind Turbines on One Map

(Bloomberg) -- Wind-turbine geeks prepare to be happy.

Thanks to a new online database, details on every one of the 57,636 operating turbines in the U.S. are only a mouse-click away. The project, unveiled Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Energy, is “more accurate, and updated more often” than any existing turbine data sets and offers valuable details to government agencies, researchers and anyone else with a keen interest in wind power, according to a statement.

The online database viewer features a map of the U.S. showing how turbines are clustered across the country. You can zoom in to see individual units in exacting detail -- project name, capacity, manufacturer and the year it came online. The interactive site also shows rotor diameter and hub height, turbine models and their positions by latitude and longitude.

The project consolidates data that was previously scattered across different datasets and was in some cases unavailable to the public. The departments of Defense and Homeland Security and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are already using the database to assess the impact of wind power on radar. No doubt there are plenty of individuals who will find more ways to take advantage of all this information.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Will Wade, Joe Richter

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