From Guest Blogger Tina Samuels: Which States are Getting Wind Energy Right?
According to the American Wind Energy Association, the last quarter of 2012 brought the total wind installations for 2012 to 13,131 megawatts of power.
This influx of new power extends the total of cumulative wind capacity for the United States to 60,007 megawatts. However, some states are much more instrumental in this than others.
Top Wind Power Capacity States
Through the year 2012, these are the top states for having installations of wind power:
• Texas – Texas is leaps and bounds the forerunner of the wind power states, even beating out “green loving” California. Texas has a total of 12,212 megawatts of wind power capacity across the state.
• California – This green state typically is on the cutting edge, but comes in #2 on wind energy. California had 5,549 megawatts of wind power capacity by the end of 2012.
• Iowa – Iowa may not have California’s square footage, but they come in nearly identical to the state on wind power. Iowa lists 5,137 megawatts of wind power.
• Illinois – Illinois has a solid showing with 3,568 megawatts of wind power for the 2012 year end. The reports show them at the cusp of being a front runner for green power options.
• Oregon – Oregon by the end of 2012 had 3,153 megawatts of wind power capacity. A solid effort by a surprising state.
• Minnesota – Minnesota is one of the states that seem to be doing right when it comes to wind power energy with an impressive 2,986 megawatts of power listed in the Energy Association Fourth Quarter 2012 market report.
• Kansas – Kansas is stepping up efforts in promoting green energy, showing 2,712 megawatts of wind power capacity on the reports.
• Washington – Washington nearly makes it to 3,000 megawatts, reporting 2,808 on the report. Perhaps 2013 is the year for Washington to break that 3K mark.
• Oklahoma – Oklahoma reports a solid 3,134 megawatts of wind power capacity throughout the state.
As you can see, some states are making great strides to promote and generate green power.
There are states on the list that may surprise you, as well as some that don’t.
What about the states that aren’t listing ANY megawatts on the report?
States That Are Getting it Wrong
These states do not even have one megawatt of wind power capacity listed on the Energy Association Fourth Quarter 2012 market report:
• Georgia
• Alabama
• Mississippi
• South Carolina
• North Carolina
• Florida
• Louisiana
• Virginia
• Kentucky
No matter what state you live in, you can help add to the wind energy effort. Turbines are created in more than 550 manufacturing facilities in 44 states.
It is a growing market, that is starting to take steep strides in getting the free energy of the wind tapped for a consumer market.
About the Author: Tina Samuels writes on Steve Wynn, Gary Crittenden, and David Kiger.
Too simple by manifold.
First: the total amount of installed generation is not a reliable measure of its energy policies. The states that have greater demand can more easily accommodate greater wind penetration, and the states that have greater wind resources can accommodate greater wind resources, as the wind becomes much cheaper to exploit.
So in order to get a sense of how well a state is or is not doing, you have to factor in what percentage of the state’s energy is derived from wind, and what the wind resources in that state are. It’s also useful to get a sense of the state’s hydropower generation, as that can serve as a low cost balance power for wind and make the implementation of wind power easier.
The states with the highest wind power penetration:
Iowa – 24.5% of 2012 generation, and 30.9% of the generation from the first 4 months of 2013 were from wind.
Iowa has the 7th best wind resource in the U.S., and has the 26th highest electrical generation. Iowa is flat as a board with very little hydropower.
Iowa is pushing very hard to force more and more wind penetration. While the wind resources are plentiful, the lack of balancing hydropower, the penetration of neighboring SD, ND, and MN; and the excess baseload from IL nuclear power all combine to make IA one of the true champs in fighting for wind penetration.
South Dakota – 24.0% of 2012 generation, and 29.8% of the generation from the first 4 months of 2013 were from wind.
South Dakota has the 5th best wind resource in the U.S., and has the 44th highest electrical generation. SD is fairly flat with little hydropower.
SD gets a bit of a pass here, as the extensive resource is coupled with extremely low demand, but the difficulty of increasing penetration to this level is worthy of respect, especially as neighboring states have their own excesses and there is little hydropower for balance.
North Dakota – 14.7% of 2012 generation, and 16.4% of the generation from the first 4 months of 2013 were from wind.
North Dakota has the 6th best wind resource in the U.S., and has the 35th highest electrical generation. SD is fairly flat with little hydropower.
ND gets a bit of a pass here, as the extensive resource is coupled with extremely low demand, but the difficulty of increasing penetration to this level is worthy of respect, especially as neighboring states have their own excesses and there is little hydropower for balance.
Minnesota – 14.3% of 2012 generation, and 16.6% of the generation from the first 4 months of 2013 were from wind.
Minnesota has the 4th best wind resource in the U.S., and has the 28th highest electrical generation. MN flat as a board with very little hydropower.
MN is pushing very hard to force more and more wind penetration. While the wind resources are plentiful, the lack of balancing hydropower, the penetration of neighboring SD, ND, and IA; and the excess baseload from IL nuclear power all combine to make MN one of the true champs in fighting for wind penetration.
Kansas – 11.4% of 2012 generation, and 21.1% of the generation from the first 4 months of 2013 were from wind.
Kansas has the 2nd best wind resource in the U.S., and has the 32nd highest electrical generation. Kansas is notoriously flat with zero hydropower.
Kansas is one of the only two states that set an RPS based on installed power rather than a percentage of penetration. Late to the party, the surrounding states are already awash in excess wind during high wind periods, and there’s no hydropower and very little NG available for even high cost balance… Kansas is pushing hard – finally… but the resource here is simply so plentiful that wind power is extremely cheap to install.
Idaho – 11.6% of 2012 generation, and 18.1% of the generation from the first 4 months of 2013 were from wind.
Idaho has the 23rd best wind resource in the U.S., and has the 43rd highest electrical generation. ID is mountainous with plenty of hydropower resources.
Idaho is the first state in the list that is not clearly topping the list with respect to wind potential, having less than 1% of the potential wind power of TX; though the extensive hydropower resource makes integration easy and inexpensive, the actual cost of Idaho wind is far higher than the states above, making Idaho the state that is probably working hardest towards greater wind penetration.
Colorado – 11.8% of 2012 generation, and 15.0% of the generation from the first 4 months of 2013 were from wind.
Colorado has the 12th best wind resource in the U.S., and has the 27th highest electrical generation. CO is famously mountainous with plenty of hydropower.
With the hydropower resources available CO has easy penetration, which balances well against the slightly higher cost for the energy and the transmission. CO is on par with IA and MN in my assessment of the state’s attempts to increase wind penetration.
Oregon – 10.0% of 2012 generation, and 12.1% of the generation from the first 4 months of 2013 were from wind.
Colorado only has twice as much potential wind resource as Idaho. It has the 25th highest electrical generation. OR is awash in hydropower, 2nd only to neighboring WA.
As with Idaho, Oregon gets credit for forcing out wind power in much less advantageous resources, but to a far greater degree, the enourmous hydropower resource makes integration cheap and easy, and transmission costs are far lower with the greater energy demand. Oregon may well be 5th in my estimate – behind ID, IL, IA, and MN.
No other state achieved double-digit penetration… nor even came close.
for 2012 a quick summary:
WY – 8.8% (WY is virtually unpopulated and home to the only land-bound class 7 wind zones in America).
TX – 7.4% (TX has the greatest energy generation in America, but it also has BY FAR the greatest wind resource. Wind is far cheaper than coal power there, and it’s pretty easy to get transmission compared to most other states in the nation… and even still the state lags many others in its penetration of wind power because the state itself has done little to support the industry and far too little to support the grid infrastructure investments – especially in the West Texas hub of ERCOT)… I’d rate TX near the bottom of the pile.
ME – 5.9%. Maine has plenty of hydropower. Transmission is extremely difficult and costly, and their wind resource is very sparce and expensive to exploit – mostly ridgeline. They’re still doing better than most.
CA – 4.9%. California should be ashamed of itself! Plentiful hydropower resources coupled with ungodly expenditures in renewable energy should have pushed this higher.
😉
Granted the wind resources are extremely low compared with most other states producing wind energy, but solar in CA costs ~3 times as much as wind, and yet solar has neared 1/5th of the wind power generation, and is growing at a much faster rate.
Overall, considering that CA also has only about twice Idaho’s resource (19th in the nation), they’re doing all right.
😉
IL – 3.9% in 2012, 6.1% for the first 4 months of 2013… Despite a low penetration, Illinois deserves special attention for pushing the bounds of sanity in their push for wind. They have moderately good resources – they’re 14th in the U.S., and have ~6.7 times as much potential wind resources as California does, though it’s mostly class 4…
But they are already producing 50% of their energy from nuclear power! That’s a fixed 50% baseload power that cannot be easily moderated! Couple that with the fact that they are a flat state with little hydropower, little pumped hydropower storage, and are surrounded by equally flat states that are pushing wind to excess… and they are dooming themselves to some serious integration issues. For now, they aren’t feeling the pain too badly, but their RPS demands 25% wind penetration, and that will be extraordinary if they reach it.
It’s worth noting that the states that you are picking on for having no wind also have no wind resource. It’s all class 1 wind, which means that the wind turbines would require more power to operate year-round than they would produce. There’s a good reason there’s no wind coming up in those states. Some of that might change as offshore wind becomes more competitive… but states like Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida will never exploit offshore wind because the hurricane liability is too high.
That’s probably enough for now. But that’s the kind of overview that is needed to give a glimpse of how different states are doing with regard to wind.
Oops, forgot to put Washington in: They were at ~5.8% in 2012, and 7.4% for the first four months of 2013. They have the most expansive hydropower in the U.S. (encompasing ~28% of the nation’s hydropower)… but their wind resource is extremely modest – similar to Idaho. Wind took a hit when the Pacific Northwest had a lot of rain and BPA had to start spilling the hydropower… forcing wind providers to curtail for several months. That’s caused investors to be pretty nervous.
Overall they’re doing ok,.
Sheesh!
I also forgot Oklahoma and New Mexico! (VERY sloppy work… I was trying to fire it off in a half an hour, and I did… and you get the quality of work that you put time in for… Sorry about that).
Oklahoma had 10.5% in 2012 and 16.4% in the first 4 months of 2013…
They have West Texas hub of ERCOT dumping excess into their hub of the SPP. No hydropower to speak of, like all the plain states. Plenty of nice wind resources. Oklahoma does have an issue with increased storm liability which makes their winds a little more costly. They’re pushing to meet a 15% RPS by 2015, which it looks like they’ll pass with ease.
New Mexico had 6.1% in 2012 and 7.4% for the first 4 months of 2013. Like Oklahoma, they’re hub on the SPP is a direct dump site for West Texas, and they have little hydropower for balance. They don’t have nearly as good a wind resource as Texas and Oklahoma, but they’re pushing hard, and making up for the resource by putting in more support for the industry.
A great and comprehensive overview Glenn. I focused on the study on wind power capacity but definitely see your angle as well. Thank you for the eye-opening comments, they add much value to the piece.
Thank you for your comprehensive overview in the comments Glenn. I chose to focus on wind capacity per the report I highlighted, but definitely see your side to the equation as well. It is hard to pinpoint the answer to the question, there are so many variables. Again, thank you for your well-researched comment, it adds to the piece well.