Wind Power
U.S. wind power installed capacity now exceeds 60,007 MW. This capacity is exceeded only by China. The Roscoe Wind Farm (781 MW) in Texas is the largest wind farm in the US as of 2009. Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon will be the largest wind farm in the world, when completed in 2012, with the nameplate capacity of 845 MW.
The U.S. wind industry generates tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity. Wind projects boost local tax bases, and revitalize the economy of rural communities by providing a steady income stream to farmers with wind turbines on their land. GE Energy is the largest domestic wind turbine manufacturer. In 2010 it also received $4986 million in federal funding, which is 42% of all federal funding for electrity generation.
There are currently 8,900 MW in nearly 100 projects under construction in the 2012. The United States has the potential of installing 10 million MW of onshore wind power and 4 million MW of offshore wind. The U.S. Department of Energy’s report 20% Wind Energy by 2030 envisioned that wind power could supply 20% of all U.S. electricity, which included a contribution of 4% from offshore wind power. Additional transmission lines will need to be added, to bring power from windy states to the rest of the country. In August 2011, a coalition of 24 governors asked the Obama administration to provide a more favorable business climate for the development of wind power.
These are some of the largest wind farms in the United States, as of 2013:
| Wind farm | Current capacity (MW) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alta (Oak Creek-Mojave) | 1,320 | |
| Buffalo Gap Wind Farm | 523.3 | |
| Capricorn Ridge Wind Farm | 662.5 | |
| Cedar Creek Wind Farm | 551 | |
| Fowler Ridge Wind Farm | 599.8 | |
| Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center | 735.5 | |
| Meadow Lake Wind Farm | 500 | |
| Roscoe Wind Farm | 781.5 | |
| Shepherds Flat Wind Farm | 845 | |
| Sweetwater Wind Farm | 585.3 |
Read more about this topic: Renewable Energy In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words wind and/or power:
“The wind speeds her,
Blowing upon her hands
And watery back.
She touches the clouds, where she goes
In the circle of her traverse of the sea.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)