Giovanni Naulahe of the EIA reports in early 2020 that in August 2019, total operating wind generation capacity surpassed total nuclear generation capacity when it reached 98.9 gigawatts (GW), compared with nuclear’s 98.1 GW. As a result, wind became the third-largest source of U.S. operating generation capacity, and nuclear capacity became the fourth-largest source (natural gas and coal remain the two largest capacity sources). Significant capacity additions from January 2019 to August 2019, totaling 4.4 GW, resulted in wind capacity surpassing nuclear capacity. Also of note, in November 2019, total wind capacity reached 100 GW when 1.1 GW of wind capacity came online. Several plants, such as Karankawa wind plant in Texas (0.3 GW) and the Montague Wind Power Facility in Oregon (0.2 GW), contributed to wind capacity reaching the 100 GW level. It is, however, important to point out that capacity does not necessarily equate to generation, as nuclear generation was 2.5 times greater than wind generation in 2019.
The 9.7% expansion in wind capacity in 2019 is part of a longer-term growth trend that has been ongoing since 2010. Wind capacity has increased from 39.4 GW in 2010 to 103.6 GW of operating capacity in 2019. Wind’s 2019 capacity level is approximately 2.6 times its 2010 capacity level. This increase also translates into an average annual growth rate of 11.3% per year. In contrast, operational nuclear and conventional hydroelectric capacity (the closest capacity level sources to wind) have been largely constant since 2010.
On a state-by-state basis, Texas is by far the leading state in terms of operational wind capacity; it has 28.1 GW of capacity (27% of U.S. total) across 178 wind facilities. Rounding out the top five states for wind capacity are Iowa (10.3 GW), Oklahoma (8.2 GW), Kansas (6.1 GW), and California (6.1 GW). The 6th through 10th leading states (Illinois, 5.2 GW; Minnesota, 3.8 GW; Colorado, 3.8 GW; North Dakota, 3.7 GW; and Oregon, 3.4 GW) illustrate that, with the exception of California and Oregon, the top wind capacity states run largely from north to south in the central part of the country where wind is very abundant.
From 2020 to 2024, wind capacity is expected to continue to grow at a strong rate despite the current expiration of the Wind Production Tax Credit at the end of 2020. According to Form EIA-860, planned wind net capacity additions (planned additions minus planned retirements) from 2020 to 2024 are expected to be 32.5 GW, if all currently reported projects to EIA are realized. This level of planned wind net capacity additions is close to the levels of planned natural gas net capacity additions (28.7 GW) and planned solar/other net capacity additions (31.4 GW). Hydroelectric and nuclear net capacity additions are expected to be close to zero, with hydroelectric at 0.4 GW and nuclear at -2.3 GW. The largest planned capacity reductions are planned for coal, which has planned net additions of -21.9 GW from 2020 to 2024.
[The I2M Web Portal editors suggest that as the construction of wind and solar projects peak over the next few years, the operation and maintenance costs of those projects will rise drastically which will led to increases in the price of consumer electricity to alarming levels, and wind and solar projects will begin to fail. Natural gas has been strategically positioned to back up these failing projects over the past few years. But, as gas production companies fail to meet demands becasue of the crashing economy (and failing natural gas companies), nuclear power will be left standing in support of the power grid. With this increased demand, SMRs, which are projected to be available in the next few years, may further entrench nuclear power as the principal, safe, and economic source of energy driving the U.S. electrical power grid.]
Original working URL: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/update/archive/april2020/
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