The U.S. State of Oklahoma has high potential capacity for wind power in the western half of the state. In 2021, Oklahoma's installed wind generation capacity was almost 10,500 megawatts, supplying over 40% of the state's generated electricity and 85% of Oklahoma's total generating capacity from all renewable resources. [1]
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| Million kilowatt-hours of electricity [2] |
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| Megawatts of Generation Capacity [3] [4] [5] |
Some of the wind farms in Oklahoma include:
The $3.5 billion, 800 mile, Plains & Eastern Clean Line transmission line was approved in 2012, which will when completed in 2017 have the capacity to deliver 7,000 MW of wind power. As of April, 2017, Clean Line Energy Partners did not have any binding contracts to provide electricity to an electric utility. The only tentative, nonbinding, agreement Clean Line was able to obtain was for 50 MW of capacity.
In 2010 Oklahoma adopted a goal of generating 15% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015. [7] Wind power accounted for 18.4% of the electricity generated in Oklahoma during 2015. [8] At the end of 2015, Oklahoma's installed wind generation capacity was 5,184 MW. [9] During 2017, wind power accounted for 31.9% of the electricity generated in Oklahoma, and installed capacity at the end of 2017 was 7,495 MW, the state being second in terms of installed capacity. [10]
In 2017, Invenergy and GE announced plans for the $4.5 billion, 2,000 MW Wind Catcher (a/k/a Windcatcher) project on a 300,000-acre site in Cimarron and Texas counties in the Oklahoma Panhandle, which would have been among the world's largest wind farms when completed in 2020. [11] [12] American Electric Power ("AEP") utility subsidiaries Public Service Company of Oklahoma ("PSO") and Southwestern Electric Power Co. ("SWEPCO") asked utility regulators in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma to approve plans to purchase the wind farm from Invenergy upon completion of construction. [11] However, the project ran into opposition and was finally cancelled in July 2018. [12]
PSO was approved in early 2020 by regulators in Oklahoma as well as Arkansas to own a 45.5% share of a massive 1,485 megawatt wind project known as the North Central Energy Facilities, with SWEPCO owning the rest. [13] The project includes three wind farms covering areas in Alfalfa, Blaine, Custer, Kingfisher, Garfield, Major and Woods counties of Oklahoma. [13] Hearings still need to be held in Texas and Louisiana. [13] While the abandoned Wind Catcher plan envisioned a new 765-kilovolt transmission line, which would have run hundreds of miles in Oklahoma, the North Central facilities are near an existing PSO/SWEPCO transmission system. [14] Also, the project is said to be scalable, so that states which approve the project would have the ability to increase the number of megawatts allocated to them should another state reject the proposal, as long as a minimum of 810 MW is committed. [14]
The Traverse Wind Energy Center, located north of Weatherford came online in 2022, with a capacity of 999 MW. It was built by Invenergy and contracted by American Electric Power. It is the second-largest wind project in the United States, behind the Alta Wind Energy Center in California. [15] [16] [17]
Being centrally located, the western half of Oklahoma is in America's wind corridor, which stretches from Canada into North Dakota and Montana, south into west Texas, where the vast majority of the country's best on-shore wind resources are located. [18] Oklahoma has the potential to install 517,000 MW of wind turbines, capable of generating 1,521,652 GWh each year. This is over one third of all the electricity generated in the United States in 2011. [19]
Oklahoma's wind resources are the eighth best in the United States. The total number of direct and indirect jobs in the state from wind power development is estimated to be between 1,000 and 2,000. [20]
Oklahoma ended the half-cent tax credit for wind by July 2017. All zero-emission rebates were $60 million in the 2014 tax year. [21]
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| Oklahoma Wind Generation (GWh, Million kWh) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Total | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 2003 | 54 | 54 | |||||||||||
| 2004 | 574 | 45 | 46 | 54 | 49 | 77 | 38 | 39 | 38 | 48 | 41 | 41 | 58 |
| 2005 | 847 | 35 | 36 | 54 | 98 | 78 | 92 | 69 | 52 | 76 | 74 | 80 | 103 |
| 2006 | 1,712 | 171 | 130 | 164 | 175 | 141 | 123 | 125 | 95 | 109 | 153 | 165 | 161 |
| 2007 | 1,849 | 146 | 165 | 199 | 184 | 147 | 108 | 84 | 162 | 150 | 209 | 159 | 136 |
| 2008 | 2,359 | 227 | 175 | 220 | 237 | 228 | 197 | 171 | 101 | 143 | 204 | 209 | 247 |
| 2009 | 2,697 | 209 | 209 | 272 | 272 | 184 | 204 | 163 | 202 | 152 | 253 | 269 | 308 |
| 2010 | 3,807 | 232 | 187 | 398 | 407 | 302 | 365 | 262 | 261 | 311 | 299 | 408 | 375 |
| 2011 | 5,606 | 348 | 449 | 529 | 534 | 567 | 561 | 333 | 336 | 343 | 498 | 626 | 482 |
| 2012 | 8,159 | 701 | 536 | 757 | 632 | 729 | 679 | 568 | 453 | 518 | 799 | 832 | 955 |
| 2013 | 11,252 | 886 | 828 | 1,109 | 1,127 | 1,069 | 1,007 | 772 | 681 | 769 | 1,125 | 1,044 | 835 |
| 2014 | 11,937 | 1,176 | 745 | 1,182 | 1,251 | 957 | 1,097 | 782 | 781 | 875 | 901 | 1,188 | 1,002 |
| 2015 | 14,031 | 1,053 | 1,080 | 936 | 1,227 | 1,136 | 1,110 | 1,136 | 955 | 1,311 | 1,060 | 1,587 | 1,442 |
| 2016 | 20,069 | 1,423 | 1,763 | 1,990 | 1,728 | 1,701 | 1,380 | 1,725 | 1,234 | 1,506 | 2,062 | 1,719 | 1,838 |
| 2017 | 23,599 | 1,943 | 2,080 | 2,445 | 2,300 | 1,898 | 1,949 | 1,463 | 978 | 1,843 | 2,562 | 2,037 | 2,101 |
| 2018 | 27,338 | 2,711 | 2,262 | 2,745 | 2,816 | 2,391 | 2,743 | 1,150 | 2,080 | 1,868 | 1,884 | 2,151 | 2,537 |
| 2019 | 29,007 | 2,384 | 2,009 | 2,431 | 2,757 | 2,420 | 2,005 | 2,149 | 2,013 | 2,633 | 3,134 | 2,446 | 2,626 |
| 2020 | 29,417 | 2,661 | 2,576 | 2,521 | 2,732 | 2,171 | 3,106 | 1,855 | 1,897 | 1,844 | 2,466 | 2,897 | 2,691 |
| 2021 | 33,389 | 2,773 | 2,025 | 3,592 | 3,319 | 2,921 | 2,306 | 1,845 | 2,632 | 2,780 | 2,941 | 2,922 | 3,333 |
| 2022 | 37,418 | 2,960 | 3,018 | 3,473 | 4,160 | 3,743 | 3,180 | 2,988 | 2,298 | 2,426 | 2,624 | 3,311 | 3,237 |
| 2023 | 21,852 | 3,422 | 3,407 | 3,896 | 3,561 | 2,462 | 2,237 | 2,867 | |||||
In 2017, Oklahoma's installed wind generation capacity was almost 7,500 megawatts, supplying almost a third of the state's generated electricity. [10]
In 2019, 53.5% of the power production in Oklahoma was produced from natural gas and 34.6% from wind power. [24]
American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP), is a major investor-owned electric utility in the United States, delivering electricity to more than five million customers in 11 states.
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.
Wind power in Texas, a portion of total energy in Texas, consists of over 150 wind farms, which together have a total nameplate capacity of over 30,000 MW. If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wind power accounted for at least 15.7% of the electricity generated in Texas during 2017, as wind was 17.4% of electricity generated in ERCOT, which manages 90% of Texas's power. ERCOT set a new wind output record of nearly 19.7 GW at 7:19 pm Central Standard Time on Monday, January 21, 2019.
Wind power in California had initiative and early development during Governor Jerry Brown's first two terms in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The state's wind power capacity has grown by nearly 350% since 2001, when it was less than 1,700 MW. In 2016, wind energy supplied about 6.9% of California's total electricity needs, or enough to power more than 1.3 million households. Most of California's wind generation is found in the Tehachapi area of Kern County, California, with some large projects in Solano, Contra Costa and Riverside counties as well. California is among the states with the largest amount of installed wind power capacity. In recent years, California has lagged behind other states when it comes to the installation of wind power. It was ranked 4th overall for wind power electrical generation at the end of 2016 behind Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma. As of 2019, California had 5,973 megawatts (MW) of wind power generating capacity installed.
Making up over 62% of the state's generated electricity in 2022, wind power is the largest source of electricity generation in Iowa. In 2020, over 34 billion kWh of electrical energy was generated by wind power. As of 2022, Iowa has over 12,200 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity with over 6,000 wind turbines, ranking 2nd and 3rd in the nation below Texas respectively.
The U.S. state of Oregon has large wind energy resources. Many projects have been completed, most of them in rural Eastern Oregon and near the Columbia River Gorge. Wind power accounted for 12.1% of the electricity generated in Oregon in 2016.
At the end of 2015, the installed capacity of wind power in Washington was 3,075 megawatts (MW) with wind power accounting for 7,101 GWh. In 2016, it reached a generation of 8,041 GWh, comprising 7.1% of the electricity generated in the state. In 2023, it had a capacity of 3,407 MW, responsible for 7.75% of generation.
At the end of 2016, the installed capacity for wind power in Minnesota was 3,500 megawatts (MW). Wind power generated nearly 18 percent of Minnesota’s electricity in 2016, ranking sixth in the nation for wind energy as a share of total electricity generation.
Wind power in Illinois provided nearly 10% of the state's generated electrical power in 2020 powering 1,231,900 homes. At the end of 2020, Illinois had 6,300 megawatts (MW) of wind power installed, ranking fifth among states for installed wind turbine capacity. An additional 1,100 MW of wind power was under construction across the state at the end of 2020.
Wind power in Montana is a growing industry. Montana had over 695 MW of wind generation capability by 2016, responsible for 7.6% of in-state electricity generation.
Wind power in Indiana was limited to a few small water-pumping windmills on farms until 2008 with construction of Indiana's first utility-scale wind power facility, Goodland with a nameplate capacity of 130 MW. As of September 2017, Indiana had a total of 1897 MW of wind power capacity installed, ranking it 12th among U.S. states. Wind power was responsible for 4.8% of in-state electricity production in 2016.
Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC), also known as Mojave Wind Farm, is the third largest onshore wind energy project in the world. The Alta Wind Energy Center is a wind farm located in Tehachapi Pass of the Tehachapi Mountains, in Kern County, California. As of 2022, it is the largest wind farm in the United States, with a combined installed capacity of 1,550 MW (2,080,000 hp). The project, being developed near Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm— site of the first large-scale wind farms installed in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s—is "a powerful illustration of the growing size and scope of modern wind projects".
The US state of Colorado has vast wind energy resources and the installed electricity capacity and generation from wind power in Colorado has been growing significantly in recent years. The growth has been sustained due to a combination of falling costs, continuing federal incentives, and the state's aggressive renewable portfolio standard that requires 30% of the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020.
Renewable energy in South Dakota involves production of biofuels and generation of electricity from renewable sources of energy such as wind and hydropower. South Dakota is among the states with the highest percentage of electricity generation from renewable resources, typically over 70 percent. In 2011, South Dakota became the first U.S. state to have at least 20% of its electricity generation come from wind power.
Wind power in Michigan is a developing industry. The industrial base from the automotive industry has led to a number of companies producing wind turbine parts in the state. The development of wind farms in the state, however, has lagged behind. In January 2021, there were a total of 1,481 wind turbines in the state with a nameplate capacity of 2,549 MW. The nameplate total exceeded 2,000 MW when Pine River came online in March 2019. Wind provided 4.2% of the state's electricity in 2016.
The state of South Dakota is a leader in the U.S. in wind power generation with over 30% of the state's electricity generation coming from wind in 2017. In 2016, South Dakota had 583 turbines with a total capacity of 977 megawatts (MW) of wind generation capacity. In 2019, the capacity increased to 1525 MW.
As of the end of 2021, New Mexico had 4,001 megawatts (MW) of wind powered electricity generating capacity, responsible for 30% of electricity produced that year. Wind power in New Mexico has the potential to generate more than all of the electricity consumed in the state.
Wind power in Tennessee has most potential in East Tennessee along the North Carolina border. The state has not passed renewable portfolio standard legislation and there is just one utility-scale wind farm with 15 operating turbines and previously 3 test turbines. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), based in Knoxville, imports wind-generated electricity into its service area which includes Tennessee. US Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee is an outspoken critic of wind power.
Wind power in Arkansas remains nearly untapped, with just a single wind turbine in the state. Arkansas does not have a renewable portfolio standard. Studies have concluded that while Arkansas is generally considered to have low wind resources, there are significant pockets of it throughout the state.
| Wind power by state |
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| Offshore wind farms |
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