Taller Wind Turbines Boost State Energy Self-Reliance

A story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune highlights the increasingly common use of 100-meter wind turbines for new wind power projects, up from the previous 80-meter standard.  The technological change grabs more wind energy, with consistently higher wind speeds at higher altitudes, meaning states can get even more power from a similar number of turbines.

In our 2010 report Energy Self-Reliant States, we illustrated the potential for state self-reliance on wind power with the following map, using NREL data that assumed turbine heights of 80 meters (and a minimum capacity factor of 35%, to be conservative).  The following two maps show the potential state self-reliance on wind power at the previous 80-meter turbine height and at the new 100-meter turbine height (with a minimum capacity factor of 30 percent or greater).  See the original article for a handy mouseover option.

The taller turbines mean that five more states are able to get 100 percent or more of their electricity from wind power (for a total of 27) and 30 states could get at least half their electricity from in-state wind power alone.

This post originally appeared on ILSR’s Energy Self-Reliant States blog.

Lead image: Wind turbines via Shutterstock