Four states account for more than half of US wind electricity generation
Renewables Now | June 10, 2019
In the United States, producers generated 275 million MWh of electricity from wind power in 2018. Of that, more than half came from just four states: Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Kansas, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) calculates. Five other states—California, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Colorado—provided another 20% of total wind generation in the country. Texas has accounted for over 25% of US wind electricity generation in each of the past three years. Most wind generating capacity in Texas is located in the rural northern and western areas of the state. The Public Utility Commission of Texas authorised a series of transmission expansion projects in 2008 that connected wind generating capacity with population centres in the southern and eastern areas of the state. In 2018, wind provided 16% of total electricity generation in Texas, behind natural gas (50%) and coal (23%).