The American wind energy industry responded to the extension of the Production Tax Credit in 2013 by starting construction on an historic and unprecedented number of new wind farms, backed by Power Purchase Agreements with electric utilities on a record scale by the close of the year. But it’s not just the utilities backing wind energy; tech firms are also seeing the benefits of going green…
With the installation of 1,084 MW in 2013 the U.S. now has an installed wind capacity of 61,108 MW. There are over 12,000 MW under construction, including 10,900 MW that started construction activity during the fourth quarter.
Following the late extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC), plus the historic level of installations in the fourth quarter of 2012, the U.S. wind industry installed 1.6 megawatts (MW) of new capacity during the first quarter of 2013 and 0 MW during the second quarter of 2013. During the third quarter, the U.S. wind industry installed 68.3 MW through the completion of projects in Alaska, California and Colorado.
The fourth quarter of 2013 saw the most activity with 1,012.4 MW completed across Kansas, California, Michigan, Texas, New York, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Massachusetts and Indiana.
Total wind power capacity installations for 2013 were 1,084 MW. This represents a 92 per cent reduction from the record-setting 13,131 MW installed during 2012 and this drop-off can be attributed to the late extension of the PTC and ITC.
There are now 61,108 MW of installed wind capacity in the United States. This is enough to power over 15.3 million homes.
Wind power construction activity
At the end of 2013 there were more U.S. wind power MW under construction than ever in history: more than 10,900 MW started construction activity during the fourth quarter and more than 12,000 MW are currently under construction. When completed, these 90+ projects will generate enough electricity annually to power 3.5 million households.
Projects are currently under construction in at least 20 states. There are more than 7,000 MW under construction in Texas – more MW than any other state currently has installed. The second most MW are under construction in Iowa (1,050 MW). Other top states for construction activity include Kansas (722 MW), North Dakota (632 MW), Michigan (342 MW) and New Mexico (317 MW).
Of the projects under construction, at least 3,770 MW of wind energy projects have long-term power offtake agreements in place through long-term PPAs or direct utility ownership. Given the high number of projects under construction in Texas, a large percentage of the projects under construction are merchant capacity on ERCOT. Additional wind energy capacity has secured long-term power offtake agreements but has not yet started construction.
Construction activity is primarily focused in the interior region, from North Dakota down through Texas. The late 2013 completion of the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) transmission lines in the Panhandle and Western parts of Texas has spurred wind development in the state.
According to the main Texas grid operator, ERCOT, 6,947 MW of proposed projects have signed interconnection agreements and a total of 24,000MW of proposed wind projects have applied to connect to the ERCOT grid. The response to the opening of such high quality wind resource has been so overwhelming that even though the CREZ grid upgrades were just completed, the grid operator is already exploring additional transmission expansions to facilitate more wind energy development in the Panhandle.
