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Wind Toolkit Data V2 (/api/wind-toolkit/v2/wind/wtk-download)

Collect and download, as CSV, a configurable set of data fields from a national collection of wind stations. The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit is an update and expansion of the Eastern and Western Wind Datasets, and is intended to support the next generation of integration studies. The WIND Toolkit includes meteorological conditions at multiple hub heights for more than 2,488,136 sites in the continental United States for the years 2007–2014.

This API is capable of creating very large downloadable archives. Unlike a typical API, the response to this provides a request acknowledgement. The real work of creating the requested downloadable archive will continue to run on the server side. When complete, and email will be sent to the email address provided in the initial request with a link to a file to download. In addition to this two step workflow, there is also an option for users who wish to download a single CSV file in direct response to an API request. The .csv format may be used to download a CSV directly. This feature is restricted to use with only a single POINT, for a single year at a time.

Request URL

GET /api/wind-toolkit/v2/wind/wtk-download.format?parameters

Request Parameters

Parameter Required Value Description
api_key Yes
Type: string
Default: None

Your developer API key. See API keys for more information.

wkt Yes
Type: well-known text point string
Default: None
A well-known text (WKT) representation of the geometry for which to extract data. May be a point or polygon geometry.
attributes No
Type: comma delimited string array
Default: All available
Options: pressure_0m, pressure_100m, pressure_200m, relativehumidity_2m, precipitationrate_0m, windspeed_10m, windspeed_40m, windspeed_60m, windspeed_80m, windspeed_100m, windspeed_120m, windspeed_140m, windspeed_160m, windspeed_200m, winddirection_10m, winddirection_40m, winddirection_60m, winddirection_80m, winddirection_100m, winddirection_120m, winddirection_140m, winddirection_160m, winddirection_200m, temperature_10m, temperature_40m, temperature_60m, temperature_80m, temperature_100m, temperature_120m, temperature_140m, temperature_160m, temperature_200m
Each specified attribute will be returned as a column in the resultant CSV download.
names Yes
Type: comma delimited integer array
Default: None
Options: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
The year(s) for which data should be extracted.
interval No
Type: integer
Default: 60
Options: 5, 15, 30, 60
Desired data timestep resolution in minutes.
utc No
Type: true or false
Default: true
Pass true to retrieve data with timestamps in UTC. Pass false to retrieve data with timestamps converted to local time of data point (without daylight savings time).
leap_day No
Type: true or false
Default: false
Pass true to retrieve data including leap day (where appropriate). Pass false to retrieve data excluding leap day.
full_name No
Type: string
Default: None
 
The full name of the user requesting data.
email Yes
Type: email string
Default: None
 
An active email for the user requesting data. This email will be used to deliver the extracted data.
affiliation No
Type: string
Default: None
 
The organization with which the user requesting the data is affiliated.
reason No
Type: string
Default: None
 
The reason that the user is requesting the data.

Response Fields

The response is composed of service-related informational fields and the results of the data query.

Field Value Description
errors
Type: string array

A list of error messages

warnings
Type: string array

A list of warning messages

inputs
Type: Object Hash
Key: Value pairs representing all input parameters
outputs
Type: Object Hash
Upon successful completion a message will be returned informing the user that file generation is in progress and an email will be sent to the address provided in the email input field when the download is ready

Examples

CSV Format

GET /api/wind-toolkit/v2/wind/wtk-download.csv?api_key={{API_KEY}}&wkt=POINT(-78.483215 32.104233)&names=2009&utc=true&leap_day=true&email=user@company.com&reason=example&affiliation=NREL
SiteID,2226728,Site Timezone,-5,Data Timezone,0,Longitude,-78.4798583984,Latitude,32.0998420715
Year,Month,Day,Hour,Minute,surface air pressure (Pa),air pressure at 100m (Pa),air pressure at 200m (Pa),relative humidity at 2m (%),surface precipitation rate (mm/h),wind speed at 10m (m/s),wind speed at 40m (m/s),wind speed at 60m (m/s),wind speed at 80m (m/s),wind speed at 100m (m/s),wind speed at 120m (m/s),wind speed at 140m (m/s),wind speed at 160m (m/s),wind speed at 200m (m/s),wind direction at 10m (deg),wind direction at 40m (deg),wind direction at 60m (deg),wind direction at 80m (deg),wind direction at 100m (deg),wind direction at 120m (deg),wind direction at 140m (deg),wind direction at 160m (deg),wind direction at 200m (deg),air temperature at 10m (C),air temperature at 40m (C),air temperature at 60m (C),air temperature at 80m (C),air temperature at 100m (C),air temperature at 120m (C),air temperature at 140m (C),air temperature at 160m (C),air temperature at 200m (C)
2009,1,1,0,30,101830,100620,99430,58.25,0,14.91,16.28,16.65,16.84,16.96,17.03,17.080000000000002,17.11,17.13,353.25,353.2,353.16,353.12,353.08,353.05,353.01,352.97,352.90000000000003,14.96,14.07,1377,13.5,13.26,13.040000000000001,12.81,12.6,12.18,N/A,N/A
2009,1,1,1,30,101960,100730,99540,61.28,0,15.700000000000001,17.150000000000002,17.55,17.76,17.89,17.98,18.04,18.080000000000002,18.12,357.56,357.47,357.42,357.37,357.34000000000003,357.3,357.26,357.23,357.16,13.700000000000001,12.71,1239,12.11,11.85,11.63,11.4,11.18,10.76,N/A,N/A
2009,1,1,2,30,102060,100830,99640,59.82,0,15.55,16.98,17.38,17.6,17.740000000000002,17.84,17.91,17.96,18.02,358.29,358.34000000000003,358.37,358.40000000000003,358.42,358.45,358.47,358.49,358.53000000000003,12.75,11.72,1138,11.1,10.84,10.620000000000001,10.38,10.16,9.74,N/A,N/A
2009,1,1,3,30,102100,100870,99670,64.71000000000001,0,15.48,16.9,17.28,17.47,17.6,17.69,17.740000000000002,17.78,17.82,3.42,3.35,3.3000000000000003,3.2600000000000002,3.22,3.19,3.15,3.11,3.04,12.08,11.03,1069,10.4,10.14,9.91,9.67,9.46,9.03,N/A,N/A
2009,1,1,4,30,102150,100910,99710,62.97,0,15.33,16.7,17.07,17.26,17.39,17.48,17.53,17.57,17.61,4.42,4.36,4.33,4.3100000000000005,4.3,4.28,4.2700000000000005,4.25,4.23,11.47,10.39,1004,9.76,9.49,9.26,9.03,8.81,8.38,N/A,N/A
...

JSON Format

GET /api/wind-toolkit/v2/wind/wtk-download.json?api_key={{API_KEY}}&wkt=POINT(-78.483215 32.104233)&names=2009&utc=true&leap_day=true&email=user@company.com&reason=example&affiliation=NREL
{
    "inputs": {
        "names": "2009",
        "utc": "true",
        "leap_day": "true",
        "email": "user@company.com",
        "wkt": "POINT(-78.483215 32.104233)",
        "reason": "example",
        "affiliation": "NREL"
    },
    "metadata": {
        "version": "2.0.0",
        "resultset": {
            "count": 1
        }
    },
    "status": 200,
    "outputs": {
        "message": "File generation in progress. An email will be sent to user@company.com when the download is ready.",
        "downloadUrl": "https://mapfiles.nrel.gov/data/wind/9ff030427d65498be728ef90e35d8eaf.zip"
    },
    "errors": []
}

Rate Limits

Rate limits for this application are significantly less than the standard rate limits for developer.nrel.gov. This decrease in the limit is required as the data provided through this service is significantly more computationally intensive to generate and provide. These rate limits are carefully calculated to allow all users the maximum throughput that our servers can sustain.

There are several levels of rate limiting for this service. The first limit determines how many requests a given user can make per 24 hour period. For requests utilizing the .csv format this rate limit is set at 5000 a day at a frequency of no more than 1 per second. For all other requests this limit is set at 1000 requests per day at a frequency of no more than 1 every 2 seconds.

Secondly each user is limited to 20 in-flight requests at any given time.

In addition, the service has a fail-safe mechanism to prevent significant performance decreases that can be caused by unexpectedly high usage of the service. This limit will cause the service to stop accepting requests when the queue reaches a point where additional requests will significantly lower server performance. When this limit is hit, the service will error with a message describing that the request queue is full.

For some tips and tricks to maximize data downloads please read the guide here.

Contact

For questions about the API or the data models please contact WindToolkit@nrel.gov

Errors

Standard errors may be returned. In addition, the following service-specific errors may be returned:

HTTP Status Code Description
400 Bad Request: When required parameters are missing.
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