Wind power in Missouri has an installed capacity of 959 MW from 499 turbines, as of 2016. [1] This provided 1.29% of the state's electricity production. [2]
Missouri's total wind generation potential is estimated to be 340 GW. [1]
As of 2016, Missouri had 959 MW of installed capacity, all installed in the north-west corner of the state. [1] At least six wind farms were developed by Wind Capital Group between 2006 and 2009. As of 2017, the largest wind farm in the state came online, the 300 MW Rock Creek Wind Farm in Atchison County. [3]
Northwest Missouri is considered the windiest portion of the state and clips the windiest portion of the country which is known as Tornado Alley.
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| Missouri Wind Generation (GWh, Million kWh) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Total | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 2008 | 203 | 11 | 7 | 13 | 19 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 12 | 19 | 30 | 12 | 30 |
| 2009 | 499 | 26 | 26 | 34 | 59 | 41 | 23 | 23 | 37 | 29 | 70 | 74 | 57 |
| 2010 | 925 | 45 | 40 | 76 | 75 | 92 | 67 | 57 | 67 | 87 | 104 | 136 | 79 |
| 2011 | 1,179 | 93 | 106 | 108 | 143 | 112 | 99 | 58 | 48 | 69 | 106 | 139 | 98 |
| 2012 | 1,245 | 135 | 112 | 135 | 111 | 116 | 103 | 66 | 62 | 64 | 115 | 116 | 110 |
| 2013 | 1,165 | 120 | 120 | 118 | 111 | 102 | 92 | 58 | 51 | 79 | 101 | 122 | 91 |
| 2014 | 1,130 | 141 | 83 | 127 | 126 | 88 | 79 | 62 | 48 | 60 | 101 | 137 | 78 |
| 2015 | 1,034 | 111 | 87 | 92 | 97 | 79 | 61 | 41 | 47 | 86 | 86 | 130 | 117 |
| 2016 | 1,122 | 98 | 118 | 119 | 132 | 69 | 65 | 60 | 52 | 83 | 100 | 108 | 118 |
| 2017 | 2,031 | 141 | 170 | 187 | 181 | 161 | 141 | 99 | 80 | 136 | 192 | 264 | 279 |
| 2018 | 2,836 | 296 | 234 | 305 | 280 | 190 | 244 | 128 | 195 | 223 | 230 | 243 | 268 |
| 2019 | 2,857 | 244 | 215 | 286 | 288 | 223 | 193 | 189 | 146 | 263 | 279 | 245 | 286 |
| 2020 | 3,345 | 242 | 250 | 260 | 263 | 261 | 285 | 168 | 204 | 286 | 338 | 378 | 410 |
| 2021 | 6,608 | 495 | 416 | 729 | 636 | 548 | 382 | 278 | 466 | 542 | 580 | 708 | 828 |
| 2022 | 7,468 | 775 | 766 | 813 | 729 | 576 | 480 | 375 | 356 | 469 | 568 | 795 | 766 |
| 2023 | 2,206 | 664 | 720 | 822 | |||||||||
| Project | County | City | Turbines | Nominal Power (MW) | Commissioned | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluegrass Ridge | Gentry | King City | 27 | 56.7 | 2008 | [6] Developed by Wind Capital Group (now owned by Exelon). Wind Capital's founder is Tom Carnahan, son of Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and U.S. Senator Jean Carnahan |
| Clear Creek | Nodaway | Maryville | 111 | 242 | 2020 | [7] Developed by Tenaska with lease by Associated Electric Cooperative in Springfield to provide power for rural electric cooperatives in Missouri, Iowa and Oklahoma. [7] [8] |
| Conception | Nodaway | Conception | 24 | 50.4 | 2008 | [9] Developed by Wind Capital Group (now owned by Exelon) |
| Cow Branch | Atchison | Rockport | 24 | 50.4 | 2008 | [10] Developed by Wind Capital Group (now owned by Exelon) |
| Farmers City | Atchison | Westboro | 73 | 146.0 | 2009 | [11] Owned by and developed by Iberdrola Renovables. |
| High Prairie | Adair, Schuyler | Marshfield,Seymour | 175 [12] | 400 [12] | 2020 [13] [14] | Project started by Terra-Gen_LLC., currently owned by Ameren since December 2020. [12] [15] |
| Loess Hills | Atchison | Rockport | 4 | 5.0 | 2008 | First city in US to get its total power from wind. [16] Developed by Wind Capital Group (now owned by Exelon) |
| Lost Creek Ridge | DeKalb | Union Star | 100 | 150.0 | 2011 | [17] Developed by Wind Capital Group and later sold to Pattern Energy. |
| Osborn | Dekalb | Osborn | 88 | 176.0 | 2016 | [18] Developed and owned by NextEra Energy. |
| Rock Creek | Atchison | York | 150 | 300.0 | 2017 | Largest in Missouri and cost $500 Million [19] Owned and developed by Enel Green Power (after acquisition in 2019 of Kansas-based Tradewind Energy). [20] |
| White Cloud | Nodaway | Maryville | 89 | 236.5 | 2020 | Owned and developed by Enel Green Power. 11 Vestas and 78 Siemens Gamesa turbines. [21] Cost was $380 million. [22] |
There have been several attempts at getting regulatory approval of transmission lines to carry wind power, either to the load centers of Missouri, or through Missouri, from major wind power producers in the Great Plains states to load centers further east.
In October 2017, the Empire District Electric Company proposed installing 500 MW of wind turbines in Jasper, Barton, Dade, and Lawrence counties. [31] [32] [33]
In May 2018, Ameren has announced plans to construct a 175 turbine, 400 MW wind farm in Adair and Schuyler counties. [34] Construction is expected to being in 2019, with the project coming online in 2020.
In February 2019, E.ON announced plans for a 150 MW wind farm northwest of Columbia, Missouri in rural Boone County. [35]
Wind power' is a major source of energy in Portugal. At the end of 2020, wind power capacity in Continental Portugal was 5,456 MW. In 2020, wind power represented 23.7% of total electricity generation.
The 605.2 megawatt (MW) Peñascal Wind Farm project is located south of Baffin Bay in Kenedy County, Texas and was constructed in three phases by Iberdrola and Mortenson Construction. It became Iberdrola's largest renewable energy facility in the world after completion of the second phase in 2010.
Wind power in New Hampshire began in 1980, with the installation of the world's first wind farm at Crotched Mountain, consisting of 20 30 kW wind turbines, although it closed decades ago. As of 2020, five wind power projects are operating in the state of New Hampshire – Lempster Mountain, which opened in 2008, Granite Reliable Wind Farm, which opened in late 2011, Groton Wind, which opened in 2012, Jericho Mountain, which opened in 2015, and Antrim Wind, which opened in 2020.
GE Wind is a division of GE Vernova. The company manufactures and sells wind turbines to the international market. In 2018, GE Wind was the fourth largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world. Vic Abate is the CEO of GE Vernova’s Wind businesses.
Meadow Lake Wind Farm is an 801.25 megawatt (MW) wind farm near Brookston and Chalmers, Indiana, spreading over portions of White, Jasper, and Benton Counties. It is owned and operated by EDP Renewables North America. The facility currently has six operational phases, with 414 turbines, and is a prominent feature on both sides of Interstate 65 in western Indiana.
Wind power in Michigan is a developing industry. The industrial base from the automotive industry has led to a number of companies producing wind turbine parts in the state. The development of wind farms in the state, however, has lagged behind. In January 2021, there were a total of 1,481 wind turbines in the state with a nameplate capacity of 2,549 MW. The nameplate total exceeded 2,000 MW when Pine River came online in March 2019. Wind provided 4.2% of the state's electricity in 2016.
The state of South Dakota is a leader in the U.S. in wind power generation with over 30% of the state's electricity generation coming from wind in 2017. In 2016, South Dakota had 583 turbines with a total capacity of 977 megawatts (MW) of wind generation capacity. In 2019, the capacity increased to 1525 MW.
The Lincoln Gap Wind Farm is a wind farm in the vicinity of Lincoln Gap on northeastern Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, Australia. It consists of 59 wind turbines and generates a total of 212 MW of electricity. Construction began in late 2017 and was initially expected to be commissioned in late 2018. Construction was delayed in July 2018 when unexploded ordnance was discovered on the site, left from historic military testing. The site is not far from the Cultana Training Area.
The South Plains Wind Farm, is located between Floydada, Texas and South Plains, Texas, on the high plains of the Llano Estacado in Floyd County. Completed in 2016, the wind farm was constructed in two phases that have a total generating capacity of 500.3 megawatts (MW).
The Rush Creek Wind Project is a 600 megawatt (MW) wind facility in eastern Colorado, located west of the town of Limon. It increased the wind generating capacity in the state by 20% when it came online in late 2018. The facility is financed, owned, and operated by Xcel Energy, the largest public utility in the state. The project was developed primarily for its numerous economic benefits since Xcel previously met the minimum 30% requirement of Colorado's 2020 renewable portfolio standard.
The Flat Ridge Wind Farm is an electricity generating wind facility spanning the intersection of Barber, Harper and Kingman County in the U.S. state of Kansas, located about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of the city of Wichita. It was constructed in two phases and has a total generating capacity of 570.4 megawatts (MW), becoming the largest such facility in the state upon its completion in 2012.
The Grande Prairie Wind Farm is a 400 megawatt (MW) wind farm spanning northeastern Holt County in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It increased wind generating capacity in the state by 50% to become the largest such facility upon its completion in late 2016. It is owned and operated by Berkshire Hathaway Energy and the power is being sold to the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
The Bison Wind Energy Center is a 496.6 megawatt (MW) wind farm spanning southwest Oliver County and north-central Morton County in the U.S. state of North Dakota. It became the largest wind generating facility in the state upon completion of the fourth construction phase in early 2015. The facility allowed the investor-owned utility company, Minnesota Power, to obtain more than 25% of its electricity generation from renewable sources, exceeding Minnesota's 2025 renewable portfolio standard requirement.
The Spinning Spur Wind Ranch is a 516 megawatt (MW) wind farm spanning the length of southern Oldham County in the northwest panhandle region of the U.S. state of Texas. The project was developed by Cielo Wind Power and EDF Renewable Energy in three phases that came online from 2012 to 2015. Phases 2 and 3 are enabled by the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) transmission infrastructure completed in 2013 that was designed to bring electricity generated in energy-resource-rich western regions to industrialized population centers in the central and eastern regions of the state.
The Javelina Wind Energy Center is a 748.7 megawatt (MW) wind farm in southeast Webb County and southwest Duval County located about 25 miles east of Laredo, Texas. The project was developed by Bordas Renewable Energy and NextEra Energy Resources in three phases that came online starting 2015. As of 2018, Javelina and adjacent wind farms create a contiguous facility with over 1 gigawatt (GW) of electricity generation.
The Glacier Wind Farm spans southwest Glacier County and southeast Toole County in northern Montana. With a total generating capacity of 210 megawatts (MW), it became the largest wind farm in the state when the second construction phase came online at the end of 2009. A portion of the electricity is purchased by San Diego Gas and Electric.
The Desert Wind Farm, also known as Amazon Wind Farm US East, spans Perquimans and Pasquotank County on the Atlantic coastal plain in northeast North Carolina. With a total generating capacity of 208 megawatts (MW), it became the first large wind farm in the southeast United States when it came online at the end of 2016. All of the electricity is contracted to Amazon to power its growing data centers in Virginia and the region.
| Wind power by state |
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