Interesting Wind Energy Facts

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1. At the current growth rate, U.S. wind energy developers install two new wind farms per week.

2. Wind mills have been in use since 2000 B.C. and were first developed in China and Persia.

3. Wind power is currently the fastest-growing source of electricity production in the world.

4. Google has invested $5 billion in a new underwater transmission line to connect offshore wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean with 1.9 million households on the East Coast.

Offshore wind farm

5. A single wind turbine can power 500 homes.

6. Roscoe Wind Farm in Texas is the world’s largest wind farm with 627 turbines generating 781.5 MW of electricity.

7. More than one-third of all new generating capacity installed in America since 2007 is from wind power.

8. There’s enough on-shore wind in America to power the country 10 times over.

Interesting wind turbines

9. U.S. wind power produces as much electricity as nearly 10 nuclear power plants.

10. Most wind turbines (95%) are installed on private land.

11. Modern wind turbines produce 15 times more electricity than the typical turbine did in 1990.

12. At times, wind energy produces as much as 25% of the electricity on the Texas power grid.

Wind turbine and birds

13. American wind power is a $10 billion a year industry.

14. Unlike nearly every other form of energy, wind power uses virtually no water.

15. By 2030, U.S. wind power will save nearly 30 trillion bottles of water.

16. At times, wind power produces as much as 45% of the electricity in Spain.

Interesting wind farm

17.Wind energy became the number-one source of new U.S. electricity-generating capacity for the first time in 2012, providing some 42% of all new generating capacity. In fact, 2012 was a strong year for all renewables, as together they accounted for more than 55% of all new U.S. generating capacity.

18.During the fourth quarter of 2012, Texas led the nation in new wind installations (with 1,289 megawatts), followed by California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa.

19. U.S. renewable energy consumption increased by 6% in 2010, with wind energy as the source of 11% of the total renewable energy consumption.