All Power is Geography, Part Two

In my continuing series on All Power Is Geography: Here is a map of the solar resources in America.

#1. I am surprised by how non-uniform this map is. There are almost more longitudinal strata (resource changes moving east to west) than latitudinal stata (boundaries moving North to South) , especially in the Midwest region.

2. No clue why Southern Texas is so weak, I guess weather is almost as important as latitude (or else, why is half of Colorado stronger than Southern Florida.)

3. I'd be curious to see where and how the world's hot spots of population densities map to solar resource, particularly for Indonesia, India, and China. My guess is that this bodes well for solar in Mexico City, I suspect it bodes poorly for solar in Tokyo Japan.

Here is the wind resources map for the U.S..




Given the strong resource in the Northeast, I am surprised that there are not more wind power startups or markets there. Sure, we know about the Cape Wind effort/issues. But given Maine's proximity to large power distribution lines feeding Boston and New York, I am particular surprised that the Maine high wind resource is not further developed... ?

Also, just an absolute 'dead zone' for the South East - null white space across entire States.

Lastly, someone, somehow, is going to get clever and do some Google-esque "mashups." I've seen one on the overlay of wind resource and transmission lines (link tbd). Someday, I'll get clever and submit one on Hybrid Resources (where to put Wind + Solar) (installers take note:), I could also see usefulness in Solar/Wind Resource + Incentives/Carbon Credits. These may exist, but I haven't seen them and cannot easily google them...