Texas remains tops in the nation in wind energy

Texas installed the most wind capacity and remained the nation’s top state for wind power in 2017, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy report found that Texas added more than 2,300 megawatts of wind power in 2017, pushing the state to nearly 22,600 megawatts of total installed wind power. Oklahoma had the second highest wind installations, with 851 megawatts installed.

The Texas additions are lower than the 3,615 megawatts and 2,611 megawatts of wind installed in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

A megawatt can power roughly 200 homes during periods of peak demand, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

The report said that 14.8 percent of the energy generated in Texas in 2017 comes from wind, up from 12.6 percent in 2016. Four states — Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota — saw more than 30 percent of their electricity generated by wind, with Iowa at the top with 26.9 percent of its energy wind-generated.

The report said Texas, with its 22,599 megawatts of installed wind power, has more wind capacity than all but five countries, including the rest of the U.S. The states with the next-largest wind capacity are Oklahoma at 7,495 megawatts, Iowa with 7,308 megawatts and California with 5,555 megawatts of installed wind capacity.

For the nation as a whole, a total of 7,017 megawatts of new wind power capacity were added in 2017 and a total of $11 billion was invested in the industry, according to the report.

The report projected that annual wind power capacity additions “will continue at a rapid clip for the next several years, before declining, driven by the five-year extension of the PTC and the progressive reduction in the value of the credit over time.”