Kansas continues to exceed renewable energy goal

With $11 billion in wind energy in the past decade, the state of Kansas has topped its Renewable Energy Standard goal by 16.5 percent in the past year.

KSNT TV reports the goal was to have 20 percent of an industry’s demand generated by renewable energy and in the past ten years, the state has gone far beyond than what was originally designed.

“It’s a great industry for a variety of reasons,” said Department of Commerce Renewable Energy Coordinator Randi Tveitaraas Jack. “We’re taking advantage of a resource that we have and it’s a great growth opportunity for some Kansas communities that may not have some of the opportunities that other communities do.”

Tveitaraas Jack says that creating wind farms in rural areas creates jobs and puts money back into the community.

Kansas is ranked fourth in the nation for having 6,128 megawatts in current active wind farms, and the Department of Commerce plans to keep that surpassing this.

Many of these farms are driven by private companies including T-Mobile, Google, Microsoft and Royal Caribbean. These companies choose to partner with areas in Kansas in order to reach their renewable energy goals while also being cost-efficient.

There are currently 1,400 kilowatts under construction in Kansas, with a goal of 400 megawatts to begin next year.

Source: KSNT