Energize Weekly, February 7, 2018
The U.S. wind industry installed 7,017 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity in 2017, $11 million in new investment, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) fourth quarter market report.
Helping to spur project development were agreements to buy power by a growing list of corporate customers seeking clean power, including Google Energy, Facebook and the Bay Area Rapid Transit. Corporate purchase power agreements accounted for 40 percent of the market.
“Non-utility customers have become a large and steady source of demand for wind power, but utilities continued to be the biggest overall customers, signing roughly 60 percent of the contracted wind capacity in 2017,” AWEA said.
Installations were down about 15 percent from 2016, when uncertainty about whether the federal production tax credit (PTC)—a key financing element for wind projects—would be renewed led to a wave of fourth-quarter projects. At the end of 2016, the PTC was extended for five years.
There are now 89,077 MW of installed wind capacity—54,000 turbines—across 41 states, according to AWEA. In the fourth quarter of 2017, a total of 29 projects were commissioned across 16 states.
Texas led with 1,179 MW of fourth-quarter projects followed by Oklahoma with 851 MW, Iowa with 334 MW and Illinois with 306 MW.
For all of 2017, Texas led with 2,305 MW of installed wind generation capacity followed by Oklahoma with 851 MW and Kansas with 659 MW.
Texas continues to be the number one state in the nation for wind power with 22,637 MW, but neighboring Oklahoma with 7,495 MW has overtaken Iowa, 7,308 MW, as number two in wind generating capacity.
Going into 2018, the market continued to look strong. The U.S. wind industry reported 28,668 MW of wind capacity under construction or in advanced development, a 34 percent year-over-year increase. This includes 5,393 MW in new announcements made during the fourth quarter.
The 28,668 MW consists of 149 projects in 31 states, with 30 percent of the activity in the Midwest, 21 percent in the Plains states, 20 percent in the Mountain West and 20 percent in Texas.
GE Renewable Energy, Nordex USA, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Vestas accounted for a combined 99 percent of the U.S. turbine market for new installations during 2017.
“Momentum to scale up the offshore wind industry continued to build in 2017,” the AWEA report said. “There are now five offshore wind projects currently in advanced development, representing over 490 MW of future offshore wind capacity.”
Purchase power agreements (PPAs) remained the key instrument for generating revenues for project developers with 5,496 MWs of PPAs. PPA volume for 2017 outpaced each of the last three years, increasing 29 percent over 2016.
Non-utility customers accounted for 40 percent of the PPA capacity while electric utilities signed the remaining 60 percent of capacity contracted for the year, 3,317 MW, and announced plans to develop and own 4,190 MW of rate-based wind capacity.
“Building new wind farms keeps American factory and construction workers busy, while breathing new life into farming and ranching communities,” Tom Kiernan, AWEA CEO, said in a statement.
