Installed Capacity Growth
| Megawatts of Installed Generating Capacity since 2001 |
The graph at right shows the growth in wind power installed nameplate capacity in MW for California since 2001.
California has a total of 5,549 megawatts installed wind generation capacity, as of the end of December 2012, wind energy (including power supplied from other states) now supplies about 5% of California’s total electricity needs, or enough to power more than 400,000 households under very rare perfect conditions. When speaking of capacity, attention should be paid to Capacity factor which puts installed capacity and actual capacity in perspective. In 2011, 921.3 megawatts of new production was installed. Most of that activity occurred in the Tehachapi area of Kern County, with some big projects in Solano, Contra Costa and Riverside counties as well. After leading the country for many years, California now ranks second nationwide in terms of capacity, behind Texas, retaking the second spot from Iowa.
Read more about this topic: Wind Power In California
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