Wind development increased 40 percent over last year, according to AWEA report

The amount of wind projects under construction or in advanced development is 40 percent higher in this year’s second quarter than the same time last year, a recent American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) report said.

Between April and June, 29 wind projects with a combined capacity of 3,841 megawatts (MW) began construction or advanced development in the United States. Ongoing projects in the United States now have
a total capacity of 25,819 MW. An additional 10,000 MW of wind came online over the past year.

“The path to unlocking America’s full energy potential is clear with another strong jump in the number of wind projects moving forward,” CEO of AWEA Tom Kiernan said. “Wind energy makes our power system more reliable and resilient and protects consumers by diversifying our energy mix. The wind industry is propelling American energy production, manufacturing, and job creation into the 21st Century.”

According to the report, approximately 80 percent of current wind development is happening in the Midwest, Texas and the Mountain West. The largest project of the quarter is taking place in Kansas, which became the fifth state to surpass 5,000 MW of installed wind capacity.

Kansas just became the fifth state to surpass 5,000 MW of installed wind power capacity, as the largest U.S. wind project installed this quarter added 178 MW in the state.

The United States now has a total of 52,000 commercial wind turbines installed with a capacity of 84,405 MW in 41 states, Guam and Puerto Rico.