Seven States to Double Their Wind Power in Near Term, AWEA Says

Seven U.S. states will soon build enough wind turbines to more than double their wind capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) newly released U.S. Wind Industry Third Quarter 2018 Market Report.

Nationally, the low cost and reliability of wind power continued to drive strong industry growth in the third quarter.  The seven states with enough wind projects under construction or in advanced stages of development to more than double their capacity are:

Land-based:  Arkansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming

Offshore:  Maryland and Massachusetts

“The wind is always blowing in the U.S. and the latest wind turbine technology helps affordably and reliably put more of that natural resource to work,” said Tom Kiernan, chief executive officer of AWEA. “With projects under way in over 30 states, wind is rapidly expanding as a major source of American energy, good jobs and clean air.”

Additionally, wind turbines are growing more powerful and efficient at delivering low-cost, clean energy, AWEA says. Longer blades are helping turbines capture more of the wind resource blowing past.  New wind farms also leverage big data and machine learning to improve power output and reduce downtime by anticipating maintenance problems before they arise.  These advances drive down costs and translate into major efficiency gains.

The average utility-scale wind turbine installed in 2017 was rated at 2.32 MW, enough to power over 750 American homes for a full year.  In the third quarter, new orders for wind turbines include land-based turbines above 4 MW for the first time, which are capable of powering 1,400 homes a year.  To put the significance of this technological advance in context, only two operating land-based wind farms currently use turbines rated above 3.5 MW.

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