Wind Power in The United States - Overview

Overview

See also: List of wind farms in the United States and History of wind power

In 1980 the world's first wind farm, consisting of twenty 30 kW wind turbines was installed at Crotched Mountain, in New Hampshire.

From 1974 through the mid-1980s the United States government worked with industry to advance the technology and enable large commercial wind turbines. A series of NASA wind turbines were developed under a program to create a utility-scale wind turbine industry in the U.S., with funding from the National Science Foundation and later the United States Department of Energy (DOE). A total of 13 experimental wind turbines were put into operation, in four major wind turbine designs. This research and development program pioneered many of the multi-megawatt turbine technologies in use today, including: steel tube towers, variable-speed generators, composite blade materials, partial-span pitch control, as well as aerodynamic, structural, and acoustic engineering design capabilities.

Later, in the 1980s, California provided tax rebates for wind power. These rebates funded the first major use of wind power for utility electricity. These machines, gathered in large wind parks such as at Altamont Pass would be considered small and un-economic by modern wind power development standards. In 1985 half of the world's wind energy was generated at Altamont Pass. By the end of 1986 about 6,700 wind turbines, mostly less than 100 kW, had been installed at Altamont, at a cost of about $1 billion, and generated about 550 million kWh/year.

In terms of installed wind power capacity, the United States is currently second only to China. As of 31 December 2012 (2012-12-31), the top five states with the most wind capacity installed are:

• Texas (12,212 MW)
• California (5,549 MW)
• Iowa (5,137 MW)
• Illinois (3,568 MW)
• Oregon (3,153 MW)

Due to better wind, the United States generates more electricity than either Germany or China, for the same installed capacity. In 2011, the U.S. generated 121 TWh, 27.7% of the world's wind generation, with 19.7% of the world's installed wind capacity, while China generated 73.2 TWh (16.7% of the world's total with 26.1% of the world's installed wind capacity). Germany generated 10.6% of the world's wind generation with 12.1% of the world's installed wind capacity, in 2011. The top five states according to percentage of generation by wind in 2012 are:

• Iowa (24.5%)
• South Dakota (23.9%)
• North Dakota (14.7%)
• Minnesota (14.3%)
• Kansas (11.4%)

The ten largest wind farms in the United States are:

Project	Capacity (MW)	State
Alta Wind Energy Center	1320	California
Shepherds Flat Wind Farm	845	Oregon
Roscoe Wind Farm	781	Texas
Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center	736	Texas
Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm	705	California
Capricorn Ridge Wind Farm	662	Texas
San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm	619	California
Fowler Ridge Wind Farm	600	Indiana
Sweetwater Wind Farm	585	Texas
Altamont Pass Wind Farm	576	California

The Alta Wind Energy Center in California is the country's largest wind farm at 1320 megawatt (MW) capacity. It consists of 490 wind turbines manufactured by General Electric, and Vestas. In 2012 it surpassed the Roscoe Wind Farm in Texas when additional phases of the project were completed. The project is located in Kern county and covers a 9,000-acre (36 km2) area.

The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in Benton County, Indiana has generating capacity of 600 MW total. The first phase of the project consisted of 222 wind turbines, installed 400 MW of capacity. Phase 2, completed in 2009, installed an additional 200 MW of capacity.