Wind Power Growth GIF, + Wind Turbine Growth Chart
A redditor recently created and shared a great GIF map of wind power growth in the United States. As you can see above, it shows monthly electricity generation from wind power by state from 2001 to 2013.
In 2013, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Illinois were the top wind energy producing states according to the EIA. but it has been growing quite fast in almost every state. Wind power is actually now the cheapest option for new electricity in many if not most markets around the world, so there’s clearly an avenue open for growth there.
An article on Planetsave.com points out: “the head of the IEA, Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven, notes that solar and wind power can’t be add-on solutions. Our entire electricity systems need to transform.” The chart above shows the beginning of that transformation wonderfully, but we still need much more.
Another great social media share we recently received comes from Sami Koreibi, who highlighted via a tweet that the power that individual wind turbines can generate has increased 100x over in the past 30 years, tagging CleanTechnica director/editor Zachary Shahan in the tweet:
https://twitter.com/skhoreibi/status/529691714626154496
Much of the coasts of the United States are suited to use wind energy, and we haven’t even begun to tap our offshore wind power potential. Wind is a renewable energy source. It does not pollute. It is an excellent alternative to fossil fuels. It was a short time ago that wind power was only on the periphery of serious energy business. Over the last decade, however, harvesting clean energy from the wind has dynamically grown. It is a huge industry. I can’t wait to see where it is in another 30 years.
Related Articles:
About Wind Energy/Why Wind Energy
Wind Energy Facts & Wind Power Facts
Wind Farms Tip Finger Windfarm Locator App/ind
Wind Turbine Can Be Built for $30
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Everyplace but the No Job South.
Must be nice governed by the incompetent.
that is interesting. are there laws against wind power down there? or do they have a massive glut of power so no need?
they have horrible renewable energy policies.
First, and I say this as someone born and raised in the the South, the South is backward. It’s largely in the grip of right wing knuckleheads whose automatic reaction is to oppose change.
Progress is last to come to the South.
That observation out of the way….
Until recently it looked like the South had little onshore wind resources. At 80 meters. A new survey of wind resources looking at what was available from 96 to 100 meters finds significant resources and as that information spreads we should start to see some onshore wind installed.
Utilities in at least three southern states are buying or are preparing to purchase wind-electricity from Oklahoma. Those utilities are going to learn how to work wind into their systems, will start to see the economic advantage, and a decade or so later than everyone else the South will probably start installing onshore wind. (They’re starting to install solar now.)
I’ll post the 80 meter and 95-100 meter wind maps. Take a look at the offshore potential for the South. Texas, while not part of the South, per se, is in the process of installing offshore. That will probably give the rest of the South some political cover to install some of its own.
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eta: If the maps don’t show then click on the icon. Disqus doesn’t do a good job handling images all the time.
The tragic part about it is that the electrical infrastructure in that region is best suited to carry renewable energy around. Wind would be able to travel almost seamlessly between almost all of those states. They ironically built out the perfect infrastructure for it. The rich oil and gas barons who run those states most likely know this.
The states in the South have a massive glut of stupidity and incompetence in their state government
it bloody sucks… speaking as a Floridian.
Don’t be blue. Check the NREL map for wind potential. The south doesn’t have the “resource” potential. On the other hand, if we’re talking solar potential than we should just let Florida submerge itself below the sea.
In interesting example is wind energy in Illinois and Indiana. Just by observation it looks like wind is only implemented by compliant farmers. Say farmers who feel it a good idea to make a boatload of money, rather than listen to right wing anti wind folks. Meteorologically speaking there’s a narrow band or wind vector that loops around the great lakes. This band is in red. And that’s where windmills are located.
(note: NREL’s map is more than 2 megs.)
Have to agree Monopolistic utilities Myopic PUC and Non scientist Governor Scott. All in the Sunshine state ( except for solar)
A cute but baffling chart than violates Tufte’s principles (link). Does it represent height – the only metric that makes a comparison with the Eiffel Tower meaningful – or power?
Q: Does it represent height or power?
A: Both. As wind turbines get taller and their rotors blades get longer, they intercept more and better wind, thereby producing more power.
Hurricane force winds do not carry far inland. Hurricanes are not the reason that wind farms have not been build in from the coast.
In addition many turbines can hold up to fairly high winds.
Vergnet turbines are designed to withstand 300 km/hr winds. It would take a direct hit from a Cat 6 to take them out.
i don’t see a lot of point in building a wind turbine past 10 MW, but, that’s okay, at 10 MW it’s nicely sized.
At one point, a few years back, China talked about building a 1 GW VAWT.
That would have been a sight to see. The Flying Spaghetti Monster’s own egg beater….
Good article. Thanks Cynthia. I didn’t know about this pronounced size differential until now.