Wind energy in USA continues rapid growth

• 6 years ago (2017-08-09)
• David Flin

North America 1004 Wind 240

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The US Energy Department has released three wind market reports demonstrating continued growth in wind energy nationwide. America’s wind industry added over 8200 MW of capacity in 2016, representing 27 per cent of all electricity capacity additions. In 2016, wind supplied about 6 per cent of US electricity, with 14 states getting more than 10 per cent of their electricity from wind. The reports covered land-based utility scale, offshore, and distributed wind power generation.

Wind power capacity in the USA experienced strong growth in 2016. Recent and projected near-term growth is supported by the industry’s primary federal incentive, the production tax credit (PTC), as well as a number of state-level policies. Wind additions have also been driven by improvements in the cost and performance of wind power technologies, yielding low power sales prices for utility, corporate, and other purchasers. At the same time, the prospects for growth beyond the current PTC cycle remain uncertain, given declining federal tax support, expectations for low natural gas prices, and modest electricity demand growth.

The 2016 Wind Technologies Market Report by the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said that utility-scale wind installations in the USA stand at over 82 GW, with 20 GW in Texas. Iowa and South Dakota produced more than 30 per cent of their electricity from wind, with 12 other states exceeding 10 per cent (Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, Vermont, Idaho, Maine, Texas, Oregon, New Mexico, and Nebraska).

The 2016 Offshore Wind Technologies Market Report by the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory said that US offshore wind project developments include over 20 projects totalling 24,135 MW of installed capacity. Most of the near-term activity is concentrated in the Atlantic off the northeast coast, but projects have been proposed in the southeast Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes. There are proposals for 1993 MW of floating offshore wind projects in deeper waters, where traditional bottom-mounted technologies are not feasible.