A $13.8 billion investment in new turbines pushed the country’s wind power generating capacity ahead of hydropower last year, according to a report released Monday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Wind generation supplied 5.5 percent of the country’s electricity last year, up from 4.7 percent in 2015, according to the EIA. In five states — Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma and North Dakota — wind sources account for more than 20 percent of electricity generation.
“For these states, and across America, wind is welcome because it means jobs, investment, and a better tomorrow for rural communities,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association in a statement.
While Colorado isn’t in the 20-percent club it is close, with wind generating 17.3 percent of power last year. New wind farm installations, however, stalled last year. A 20 percent boost in the state’s wind-generating capacity is expected in late 2018 with the completion of Xcel Energy’s Rush Creek Wind Farm.
Iowa leads all states with 36.3 percent of its electricity coming from wind, followed by South Dakota at 30.3 percent and Kansas at 29.6 percent.
In a historic first, the Southeast Power Pool, which stretches from northern Texas to North Dakota, pulled 52.1 percent of its electricity supply from wind sources in the early hours of Feb. 12, the EIA noted.
About half of the country’s hydroelectric generation is concentrated in the Pacific Northwest and California. Wind generation capacity is widespread, although 99 percent of turbines are located in rural areas. The heaviest concentration of wind-generating capacity is in the Plains states, with minimal capacity in the Gulf states, aside from Texas, and along the Atlantic seaboard, except for Maine and Vermont.
The EIA reports the addition of 8,727 megawatts of new wind capacity last year and more than 52,000 turbines now in operation. Although wind-generating capacity exceeds that of hydro, when water is available hydropower plants make more efficient use of their capacity.
Heavy rain along the West Coast in recent weeks has replenished reservoirs, and electricity generation from hydropower is expected to remain ahead of wind this year even as more turbines are installed, the EIA forecasts.
