Oklahoma remains number two in the nation when it comes to wind energy capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association’s Second Quarter 2018 Market Report released this week.
Texas is far away the top wind-producing state in the nation with 23,262 megawatts of electricity while Oklahoma trails at 7,495 megawatts of electricity produced from wind.
Iowa is third at 7,312 Megawatts followed by California at 5,686 megawatts and Kansas is fifth at 5,110 megawatts.
But most of the newest wind production in the second quarter came in Texas, IIlinois and Nebraska. Texas brought online 464 MW followed by 132 MW in Illinois and 30 MW in Nebraska. The quarter saw 626 megawatts of new capacity installed and helped push the nation’s cumulative wind energy capacity total to more than 90 gigawatts.
But more capacity is still under construction. The second quarter saw 5,322 MW worth of wind capacity begin construction bringing total construction activity to a record 18,987 MW.
“Wind power’s job-creating engine just kicked into a higher gear,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA. “And all Americans will benefit as the record number of wind farms under construction begin delivering new revenue to rural communities and affordable homegrown energy to consumers.”
Texas completed the 300 MW Santa Rita wind farm (seen right), the 160 MW Rattlesnake Wind project, and the 3.57 MW onsite wind project for the US Advanced Wind Turbine Test Facility at West Texas A&M University. In addition was the 132 MW Bishop Hill wind farm completed in Illinois, and the 30 MW Kimball Wind Farm in Nebraska.
