Tracking Wind Energy across the USA

TRACKING WIND ENERGY ACROSS THE USA

February 2012 edition
Capacity, generation and consumption data for wind energy at the national U.S. and individual State level.
Data coverage is for the latest month, year to date, last 12 months and last 36 months.
updated with October 2011 data

Summary

In October 2011, a cumulative 42,471 MW of wind energy capacity across the USA generated 10,623 GWh of electricity. 3,629 MW of capacity have been added year to date and electricity generation from wind energy sources is 27.79% higher than the same period the previous year. Wind energy now accounts for 4.04% of total capacity across the USA and has accounted for 25.75% of all added capacity year to date.

Primary energy production from wind energy sources equalled 104 Trillion BTUs in October 2011, with 99.95% of primary energy consumption being attributed to the Electric Power sector. Consumption of Wind Energy has increased by 27.79% on a year to date basis compared with 2010, whilst total consumption has increased by 0.56% in the same period. Year to date, Wind accounted for 1.17% of total Primary Energy consumption; 12.48% of Renewable Energy (inclusive hydroelectricity) and 19.49% of Non-Hydro Renewable Energy Primary Energy consumption.

The 10,623 GWh of electricity generated in October 2011 from wind power sources came primarily from IPPs (9,026GWh, 84.97%) and Utilities (1,592GWh, 14.99%). As of October, 33 States had generated a total of 96,923 gigawatthours* of electricity from Wind Energy in 2011. Texas had generated the most with 24,944GWh (25.82% of the total) whilst Vermont generated the least (10GWh, 0.01%).

In October 2011, 399.4 MW of Wind capacity were added across the USA, bringing the cumulative total of installed capacity to 42,471 MW, an increase of 15.02% on the cumulative installed base in October 2010. Wind capacity as a percentage of total energy capacity has increased by 0.47 percentage points since October 2010.

As of October 2011, 37 States had installed Wind capacity, 21 have added new capacity in 2011 whilst 22 have added new capacity since October 2010. The top 10 States with the largest cumulative installed wind capacity were : Texas, Iowa, California, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Delaware.

In October 2011, 5 new wind farms became operational across the USA with a combined capacity of 399 MW from 250 turbines. 138 companies had installed wind capacity as of October 2011 with a combined cumulative capacity of 42,471 megawatts. The top 20 companies accounted for 81.18% of this total capacity (and 80.79% of the total turbine count).

This is just a snapshop of generation, consumption and capacity trends for wind energy across the USA. The full report 'Tracking Wind Energy across the USA' contains over 70 pages of detailed tables, charts, maps and analysis and is updated monthly. Similar reports are also available for biomass and waste energy, geothermal energy, hydroelectricity and solar energy.