A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an extensive area. Wind farms can be either onshore or offshore.
The United Kingdom is the best location for wind power in Europe and one of the best in the world. By 2023, the UK had over 11 thousand wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 28 gigawatts (GW): 14 GW onshore and 14 GW offshore, the sixth largest capacity of any country. Wind power is the largest source of renewable energy in the UK, but at under 5% still far less primary energy than oil or fossil gas. Wind generates more than a quarter of UK electricity, but less than gas over a whole year.
Arklow Bank Wind Park is a 25 megawatt offshore wind farm generating electrical power for the Wicklow region in Ireland. It is the first offshore wind farm in Ireland, and the world's first erection of wind turbines rated over 3 MW. It is located on the Arklow Bank, a shallow water sandbank in the Irish Sea, around 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) off the coast of Arklow with an area of 27 by 2.5 kilometres.
Greater Gabbard is a 504 MW wind farm, built on sandbanks 23 kilometres (14 mi) off the coast of Suffolk in England at a cost of £1.5 billion. It was completed on 7 September 2012 with all of the Siemens SWT3.6–107 turbines connected. Developed as a joint venture between Airtricity and Fluor, it is now jointly owned by SSE Renewables and Innogy.
Wind power generation capacity in India has significantly increased in recent years. As of 31 August 2023, the total installed wind power capacity was 44.089 gigawatts (GW), the fourth largest installed wind power capacity in the world. Wind power capacity is mainly spread across the southern, western, and northwestern states.
Wind power is the fastest-growing renewable energy technology in Scotland, with 11,482 megawatts (MW) of installed wind power capacity by Q1 2023. This included 9,316 MW from onshore wind in Scotland and 2,166 MW of offshore wind generators.
China is the world leader in wind power generation, with the largest installed capacity of any nation and continued rapid growth in new wind facilities. With its large land mass and long coastline, China has exceptional wind power resources: it is estimated China has about 2,380 gigawatts (GW) of exploitable capacity on land and 200GW on the sea. Wind power remained China's third-largest source of electricity at the end of 2021, accounting for 7.5% of total power generation.
In 2021 France reached a total of 18,676 megawatts (MW) installed wind power capacity placing France at that time as the world's seventh largest wind power nation by installed capacity, behind the United Kingdom and Brazil and ahead of Canada and Italy. According to the IEA the yearly wind production was 20.2 TWh in 2015, representing almost 23% of the 88.4 TWh from renewable sources in France during that year. Wind provided 4.3% of the country's electricity demand in 2015.
The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm is a wind farm in Benton County, Indiana, near the city of Fowler, IN about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Lafayette and 90 miles (140 km) northwest of Indianapolis. Fowler Ridge was originally developed in 2005 and 2006 by Orion Energy, LLC and Vision Energy, LLC and later sold in 2007 to BP and Dominion Resources. The project was constructed beginning in 2008 in two phases and has a nameplate capacity of 600 MW.
Wind power in Belgium depends partially on regional governments and partially on the Belgian federal government. Wind energy producers in both the Flemish and Walloon regions get green certificates but not with the same conditions.
As of October 2023, wind power in the Netherlands has an installed capacity of 10,619 MW, 37.5% of which is based offshore. In 2022, the wind turbines provided the country with 18.37% of its electricity demand during the year. Windmills have historically played a major part in the Netherlands by providing an alternative to water driven mills.
Wind power in Indiana was limited to a few small water-pumping windmills on farms until 2008 with construction of Indiana's first utility-scale wind power facility, Goodland with a nameplate capacity of 130 MW. As of September 2017, Indiana had a total of 1897 MW of wind power capacity installed, ranking it 12th among U.S. states. Wind power was responsible for 4.8% of in-state electricity production in 2016.
The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm now known as Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) project, is an offshore wind farm close to the Beatrice oil field in the Moray Firth, part of the North Sea 13 km off the north east coast of Scotland.
Walney Wind Farms are a group of offshore wind farms 9 miles (14 km) west of Walney Island off the coast of Cumbria, England, in the Irish Sea. The group, operated by Ørsted, consists of Walney Phase 1, Phase 2 and the Walney Extension. The extension has a capacity of 659 MW and it was the world's second largest offshore wind farm in 2018.
Teesside Wind Farm, or alternatively referred to as Redcar Wind Farm, is a 27 turbine 62 MW capacity offshore wind farm constructed just to the east of the mouth of the River Tees and 1.5 km north of Redcar off the North Yorkshire coast, in the North Sea, England.
Wind power in New Jersey is in the early stages of development. New Jersey has just six wind turbines, but the state has plans to develop several major offshore wind projects on the continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern Jersey Shore. Legislation has been enacted to support the industry through economic incentives and to permit wind turbines on existing piers.
Dogger Bank Wind Farm is a group of offshore wind farms under construction 125 to 290 kilometres off the east coast of Yorkshire, England in the North Sea. It was developed by the Forewind consortium, with three phases envisioned - first phase, second phase and third phase. In 2015 the third phase was abandoned, while the first and second phases were granted consent. It is expected that the Dogger Bank development will consist of four offshore wind farms, each with a capacity of up to 1.2 GW, creating a combined capacity of 4.8 GW.
The East Anglia Array is a proposed series of offshore wind farms located around 30 miles off the east coast of East Anglia, in the North Sea, England. It has begun with the currently operational East Anglia ONE, that has been developed in partnership by ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall. Up to six individual projects could be set up in the area with a maximum capacity of up to 7.2 GW. The first project, East Anglia ONE at 714 MW, received planning consent in June 2014 and contracts in April 2016. Offshore construction began in 2018 and the project was commissioned in July 2020. It is expected to cost £2.5 billion.
Hornsea Wind Farm is a Round 3 wind farm which began construction in 2018. Sited in the North Sea 120 km (75 mi) off the east coast of England, the eventual wind farm group is planned to have a total capacity of up to 6 gigawatt (GW).
The Formosa 1 Offshore Wind Farm is a 128 MW offshore wind power station in Miaoli County, Taiwan. It is Taiwan's first offshore wind farm.
