Annual output of U.S. wind power plants declines for first time since mid-1990s

7th May 2024 | Source: The Global Energy Association

Despite a 6.2 gigawatt (GW) increase in the capacity of wind power plants (WPPs), the actual power output of WPPs in the United States fell by 2.1% in 2023, totaling 425.2 terawatt-hours (TWh). According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), power generation at WPPs in the U.S. has dropped for the first time since the mid-1990s.

A key reason was low-wind conditions in the first half of 2023, which caused the power output of WPPs to fall by 14% between January and June 2023. The weather conditions improved slightly in the second half of the year: in the period between August and December 2023, the output of WPPs in the U.S. increased by 2.4% year-on-year. However, the average annual utilisation rate of WPPs – the ratio of actual to maximum capacity use – went down from 35.9% in 2022 to 33.5% in 2023, reaching an eight-year minimum. The largest decline was recorded in the northern Midwestern states: the year 2023 saw the power output of WPPs fall by a total of 6% in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, and by a total of 8% in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and North and South Dakota. Meanwhile, Texas, the leading U.S. state in terms of wind infrastructure development, increased the power output of its WPPs by 4.4% in 2023.

The share of WPPs in the U.S. national energy mix stood at 10% in 2023, surpassing the same indicator for solar (4%) and hydroelectric power plants (6%). The top three sources of electricity were gas-fired, nuclear and coal-fired power plants, which accounted for 43%, 19% and 16% of the power output, respectively (with all other types of generators amounting to 2% in total). The high share of gas is linked both to the high availability of feedstock and the relatively low cost of gas-fired power plants. The EIA estimates that in the current tax and regulatory environment, it costs an average of $1,330 to bring into operation 1 kilowatt (kW) of the capacity of combined cycle plants compared to $2,098 per kW for onshore wind generators and $5,338 per kW for offshore ones.

The installed capacity of WPPs in the U.S. rose by 100.5 GW between 2010 and 2023, and is expected to increase by another 8.2 GW in 2024, according to a forecast by the EIA. However, when it comes to the rates of capacity growth, WPPs are expected to lag behind solar panels (36.4 GW) and energy storage devices (14.3 GW) this year.