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ItsNotAboutTheMoney

Well-Known Member
Jul 12, 2012
14,986
15,635
Maine
We have a thread for solar. How's about wind?

EIA Electricity Power Monthly.

Wind had a notable month. For the first time, rolling 12 month total wind generation was higher than hydroelectricity over the same period, with wind power now being the 4th largest source of US generation. Hydroelectricity is lower this year than in 2018, but the rolling wind total is greater than hydroelectricity has been in 8 of the past 11 years.

Given additional capacity and relatively low wind generation in the latter part of 2018, we should expect the 2019 total to be higher than the current rolling total, and it is possible that wind power could even reach 300TWh in 2019.

Capacity (MW):
PeriodPriorChangeNewChange
Month98,11227698,3870.28%
YTD94,2954,09298,3874.34%
Rolling89,0129,37698,38710.53%
Plan +12mo11,0575510,837.
[tr]

Generation (GWh):
YearMonthYTDRollingMonth %YTD%Rolling
201816,022169,016274,4553.86%6.91%6.60%
201922,470176,809282,7445.42%7.36%6.79%
Difference6,4487,7938,2891.56%0.45%0.19%
[/tr]
 
EIA Electricity Power Monthly - October 2019 for August 2019.

Wind generation for August 2019 was only slightly up on August 2018, which was a windy month. (August 2018 generation was unusually high, being greater than July 2018 and September 2018, although it's normally the least windy month.)

We should expect that generation should be substantially higher than 2018 for the remaining months of the year (2018 generation was less than 2017) so total generation for 2018 could still reach 300TWh.

567.2MW of new capacity was added in August 2019, bringing the total to 98,954.6MW

Capacity (MW):
PeriodPriorChangeNewChange
Month98,387.4567.298,954.60.58%
YTD94,417.74,536.998,954.64.81%
Rolling89,469.59,485.198,954.610.60%
Plan +12mo10,836.5417.310,686.6.
[tr]

Generation (GWh):
YearMonthYTDRollingMonth %YTD%Rolling
201819,845186,620278,4374.84%6.55%6.67%
201919,867194,740280,7704.91%6.94%6.75%
Difference228,1202,3330.07%0.39%0.09%
[/tr]
 
  • Informative
Reactions: RubberToe
Industry forecasts suggest US offshore wind capacity could grow to as much as 16GW by 2030

A look at the top 10 U.S. offshore wind projects in the pipeline where developers have exclusive development rights in a given lease area and a viable off-take mechanism for sale of electricity. All are on the outer continental shelf administered by the federal government, except for Icebreaker Wind:

The future of US offshore wind: the top ten biggest pro
 
Good to know on the rare hours when there is essentially no terrestrial wind in California, that there is plenty of sun and offshore wind:

Wind Generation.png

California ISO - Supply, Today's Outlook



3pm PST:
Wind Map.png


Windy as forecasted
 
  • Like
Reactions: bruce4000
Good to know on the rare hours when there is essentially no terrestrial wind in California, that there is plenty of sun and offshore wind:

One day of data does not make a power adequacy plan make.

NM is (finally!) building 'SunZia', a 6 GW transmission line from the windy parts of NM to AZ (with distribution onwards to parts westward.) I wish it was 5x the capacity, but I think it is a good start. NM wind is a good fit for the CA duck curve.
 
Last edited:
One day of data does not make a power adequacy plan make.
I leave the CAISO webpage up on my home laptop - most days I like to catch-up on grid supply sources and demand with an eye out to the unusual (such as climate/weather events) and/or high demand scenarios. This gives an idea of what sorts of growing renewable development, storage, transmission, etc will be desirable in the future.

NM is (finally!) building 'SunZia', a 6 GW transmission line from the windy parts of NM to AZ (with distribution onwards to parts westward.) I wish it was 5x the capacity, but I think it is a good start. NM wind is a good fit for the CA duck curve.
Although not everyone in this sub-forum is a fan of large interconnections spread across many States, glad here to see this development.