No one really knows when the wind will blow.

But with increasing numbers of wind turbines being installed in the United States, the intermittent nature of wind power is becoming a serious challenge.

In this video, the Department of Energy describes how it is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), for a wind forecasting improvement project (WFIP) that will help grid operators and power companies have more ability to predict the number of watts that might come into the grid from wind turbines, ultimately reducing the cost of wind power for consumers.

The joint DOE-NOAA project selected two geographic regions. The first project will be led in partnership with WindLogics in the northern Great Plains region. The second will be led in partnership with AWS Truepower in the southern Great Plains of west Texas.

WFIP–which is set to kick off this month–will collect one full year of data, including forecasting and economic information.

Photo Caption: Base map of the northern Great Plains study area showing existing and planned new observation locations. Tall towers shown are from the public South Dakota State University network. Proprietary tall tower locations are not shown.

Photo Caption: Base map of the southern Great Plains study area showing existing and planned new observation locations. Tall towers shown are from the public West Texas tall tower network. Proprietary tall tower locations are not shown.