Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. From January through December 2022, 434.8 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 10.25% of electricity in the United States. The average wind turbine generates enough electricity in 46 minutes to power the average American home for one month. In 2019, wind power surpassed hydroelectric power as the largest renewable energy source in the U.S.
As of January 2023, the total installed wind power nameplate generating capacity in the United States was 141,300 megawatts (MW). This capacity is exceeded only by China and the European Union. Thus far, wind power's largest growth in capacity was in 2020, when 16,913 MW of wind power was installed. Following behind it were 2021, during which 13,365 MW were installed, and 2012, which saw the addition of 11,895 MW, representing 26.5% of the new power capacity installed during that year.
By September 2019, 19 states had over 1,000 MW of installed capacity with five states (Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and California), generating over half of all wind energy in the nation. Texas, with 28,843 MW of capacity, about 16.8% of the state's electricity usage, had the most installed wind power capacity of any U.S. state at the end of 2019. Texas also had more under construction than any other state had installed. The state generating the highest percentage of energy from wind power is Iowa at over 57% of total energy production, while North Dakota has the most per capita wind generation.
The Alta Wind Energy Center in California is the largest wind farm in the United States with a capacity of 1,548 MW. GE Power is the largest domestic wind turbine manufacturer.
History
The first municipal use of multiple wind-electric turbines in the USA may have been a five turbine system in Pettibone, North Dakota in 1940. These were commercial Wincharger units on guyed towers.
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 electric power. 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 GWh/year.
Largest wind farms
The ten largest wind farms in the United States are:
Economics
The 2020 report on energy costs by Lazard found that the unsubsidized levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for onshore wind is 2.6 to 5.4 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), and the median unsubsidized LCOE for offshore wind is 8.6 cents per kWh. In comparison, the analysis finds that the lowest-cost conventional source, Gas Combined Cycle, has a cost range of 4.4 to 7.3 cents per kwh.
In 2021, the United States Energy Information Administration estimated that the unsubsidized, levelized cost of new onshore wind energy entering service in 2023 will be 3 cents per kwh. The report also cautioned that levelized costs can be misleading. While levelized cost reflects the cost of building and operating a power plant, it does not recognize the relative value of energy from dispatchable sources such as gas turbine compared to non-dispatchable sources such as wind farms. The report also calculates levelized avoided cost of energy (LACE), which can be used to better reflect the economic value of an energy source.
Subsidies such as the investment tax credit and production tax credit further reduce the cost of wind energy. These subsidies are scheduled to decline and expire in the coming years.