The main issues related to assessment and forecasting of the wind and wind energy have been reviewed. These include the limitations and advantages of wind forecasting and assessment of the wind power density, especially considering trends of increasing penetration of wind-generated power into the utility grid and storage of wind-generated power. Accurate forecasting of the wind power density over a large range of spatial and temporal scales is a critical
issue for planning and operations of wind farms. A review of various prediction tools, from simple statistical models to highly complex numerical techniques, was performed for this purpose. The influence of wind variability, atmospheric stability, turbulence, and the low-level jets on wind power density are elaborated on in detail. Furthermore, prediction and assessment of future wind energy resources and their economic implications as well as environmental concerns such as birds’ habitats and routes, viewpoint aesthetics, and noise are also discussed in this study. Some climate projection studies indicate minor changes in the wind resources comparable
to differences in global models results while others argue that the wind resources will be reduced due to global warming and they call for harvesting wind energy at the maximum rate as soon as possible
