Jay's Sandbox
An informal corner for experiments—maps, visualizations, and tools built with public data to explore ideas in wind energy and GIS. More experiments coming as I build them out.
Experiments
U.S. Wind Turbine Timeline
Watch U.S. wind build out year by year—every turbine in the USGS database, colored by hub height, loaded live. See how towers and rotors have grown since the 1980s.
→ Jump to map
Live Grid Mix Dashboard
Hourly U.S. electricity generation by source—wind, solar, gas, nuclear—across major grid operators, pulled from the EIA open API. Map + charts.
→ Open dashboard
Wake Effect Sandbox
Every turbine leaves a "wake" of slower, choppier air behind it—park another machine in that shadow and it can lose 10–20%+ of its energy. Drag turbines, spin the wind direction, and watch farm output respond. Spacing is money.
→ Open simulator
Wind PTC Value Calculator
What’s a wind project’s production tax credit worth? Size the project, toggle prevailing wage and the bonus adders, and see the 10-year §45Y credit stream at the IRS’s 2026 rates.
→ Open calculator
Wind Resource & Energy Estimate
Click anywhere in the U.S. for a year of hourly winds, a wind rose, and the energy a modern turbine would make there—at 80 m up to 160 m hub heights.
→ Pick a site
More experiments in progress…
Ideas in the queue: FAA obstruction explorer, interconnection queue maps, ERCOT wind & solar vs. demand, and a wind rose builder.
Experiment #1 — U.S. Wind Turbine Timeline
Every dot is a wind turbine standing today, shaded by hub height. Press play to watch the fleet build out by the year each project came online—and how much taller the machines have grown. Click any turbine for its details.
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Turbines keep getting bigger
Median hub height and rotor diameter of turbines installed each year
New capacity by year
Capacity of today’s turbines, by the year they came online · click a bar to jump there
Note: the database tracks turbines standing today, so older years show only the machines that are still operating—turbines since removed aren’t counted. Install dates are recorded by year. Repowered turbines keep their original online year.