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Utility-Scale Wind

Wind is an important source of affordable, renewable energy, currently supplying nearly 5% of our nation's electricity demand. By generating electricity from wind turbines, the United States can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, diversify its energy supply, provide cost-competitive electricity to key coastal regions, and help revitalize key sectors of its economy, including manufacturing.

The Energy Department defines utility-scale wind projects—both land-based and offshore—as turbines larger than 1 megawatt, and utility-scale wind turbines also come in a multi-megawatt scale. Did you know that the world's largest wind turbine has a rated power output of 8 megawatts, which is enough to power 7,500 homes?

Utility-scale wind turbines are typically installed in large multi-turbine wind farms connected to the nation's transmission system. More information is available on the Energy Department's wind energy research portfolio.

Chart showing the potential wind velocity with taller towers.

Land-Based Wind

Approximately 986 wind projects are now operating across 40 states and Puerto Rico. These projects represent nearly 74 gigawatts of energy capacity. Turbines installed today typically average almost 2 megawatts in size and are predicted to scale up in the coming years.

A recent Department of Energy report, Enabling Wind Power Nationwide, finds that taller wind turbine towers of 110 and 140 meters with larger rotors can more efficiently capture the stronger and more consistent wind found at greater heights, compared with 80-meter wind turbine towers typically installed today.

Offshore Wind

Global offshore wind capacity reached 12.1 gigawatts by the end of 2015; however, U.S. wind generation remains entirely land-based, due in large part to the unique planning, siting, and permitting challenges found in U.S. waters. The industry achieved an important milestone in August 2016, when developers finished construction on the 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island. The project should be commissioned by the end of the year, and a new era of clean energy in the United States will begin. Several other offshore projects in the United States are advancing through the development process. Interest in developing offshore wind energy exists in coastal areas because of the proximity of offshore wind resources to population centers, the potential for local economic development benefits, and a superior wind resource.

The Energy Department's Wind Vision Report quantified the benefits from up to 22 gigawatts of installed offshore wind by 2030 and 86 gigawatts by 2050. In fact, the Wind Vision scenarios show that by 2050, offshore wind could be available in all coastal regions.

Wind Resource Maps

States, utilities, and wind energy developers use resource maps to determine the economic and technical viability of a potential development site for utility-scale wind projects.

Wind Energy and Wholesale Energy Costs

A majority of the electricity generated from utility-scale wind developments is bought and sold on the wholesale power market, either contractually or through a competitive bid process prior to being distributed to retail consumers.

Along with the electricity generated, the wholesale market is made up of additional products utilized to uphold power system reliability. Products include capacity for current and future demand, as well as ancillary services that maintain and support reliable transmission to consumers.

The wholesale market is also where the overall market-based cost of wholesale electricity is established. A variety of factors are capable of influencing this cost, including fuel price fluctuations, consumer demand, transmission constraints, and line losses.

Although low natural gas prices and reduced electricity demand have driven down wholesale power prices since 2008, wind energy is currently cost effective in many areas of the United States. In some regions of the country, wind power prices are competitive with wholesale power prices and other new sources of generation.

The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for wind is influenced by factors including the quality of the wind resource, access to transmission, capital and balance of system costs, plant performance and productivity, operations and maintenance costs, and financing costs. Incentives and policies also have significant impacts on power purchase agreement prices.

Between 2008 and 2013, the LCOE from wind in good to excellent resource sites declined by more than one-third, falling from $71 per megawatt-hour to $45 per megawatt-hour (excluding the federal production tax credit).

For More Information

Wind Vision

This report describes the potential development of wind energy through 2050 and provides an overview of the current wind market, expected impacts if 35% of the nation's electric generation comes from wind power, and a proposed outline of activities that will be required to make the vision a reality.

Enabling Wind Power Nationwide

This report describes the impact of the changes in wind turbine technology, mostly through the use of taller towers and larger wind turbine blades. Technological advancements have expanded areas in which wind can be economically developed and enabled every state in the nation to have utility-scale wind potential.

How Do Wind Turbines Work?

This page provides information about wind turbine sizes and types. A video explains the basics of how wind turbines operate.

Offshore Wind Jobs and Economic Development Impacts in the United States: Four Regional Scenarios

Using the offshore wind Jobs and Economic Development Impacts (JEDI) model, researchers developed four case studies of potential offshore wind deployment scenarios in different regions of the United States: the Southeast, the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, and the Mid-Atlantic.

Fact sheets summarizing the analyses are also available for each region:

Potential Economic Impacts from Offshore Wind in the Great Lakes Region (defined here as all U.S. states that touch Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin)
Potential Economic Impacts from Offshore Wind in the Gulf of Mexico Region (defined here as Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida)
Potential Economic Impacts from Offshore Wind in the Mid-Atlantic Region (defined here as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia)
Potential Economic Impacts from Offshore Wind in the Southeast Region (defined here as Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia).