Introduction to Wind Power

The wind has been used since ancient times to provide power, from the early sailing ships to medieval windmills to stand-alone water pumps on farms and ranches to modern wind turbines. The world's first wind farm had 20 wind turbines and total power capacity of 0.6 MW, installed on Crotched Mountain in southern New Hampshire in December 1980. The Altamont Pass near San Francisco, California, developed in the 1980s, was once the largest wind farm in the world in terms of capacity and still has the largest concentration of wind turbines in the world. Alta Wind Energy Centre in Tehachapi, Kern County, California, is the largest wind farm in the United States and one of the largest in the world with an operational capacity of 1,550MW. And the Gansu Wind Farm Project, a group of 18 large wind farms in western Gansu province in China, is the largest wind farm in the world with current capacity (in 2021) of 7,965 MW. When the project is complete, it is planned to have a capacity of 20,000 MW.

Wind is a clean and renewable source of energy that is in abundant supply. According to the EIA in 2021, wind power is the largest source of renewable energy in the US, recently surpassing hydropower, and makes up 9.2% of total US electrical generation.

As the demand for clean wind power continues to grow, new technology and the harnassing of offshore wind provides tremendous potential for significant new generation. Technology is rapidly advancing in the areas of turbine height and blade length which will allow turbines to access stronger winds and more efficiently turn that wind into electricity. Improvements in batteries will allow wind energy to be captured and stored when it is not needed and then transmitted to the grid when it is needed. And improvements in turbine constructability and new construction techniques will reduce the installed cost of turbines, making them more competitive with other forms of energy.

Offshore winds are another growth opportunity. Offshore winds are stronger and tend to be steadier than onshore winds, which improves the generating capacity of each turbine. The US Department of Energy estimates that there is a total offshore wind potential of over 4,000 GW in the 5 offshore wind regions. That compares to the total US electrical generation capacity of just over 1,000 GW.

Visit OWOE: Wind Power to see a variety of more detailed topics related to wind energy.

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