Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. In 2025, 464.4 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 10.48% of electricity in the United States. The average wind turbine generates enough electricity in 46 minutes to power the average American home for one month. In 2019, wind power surpassed hydroelectric power as the largest renewable energy source in the U.S. In March and April of 2024, electricity generation from wind exceeded generation from coal, once the dominant source of U.S. electricity, for an extended period for the first time. The federal government and many state governments have policies that guide and support the development of the industry, including tax credits and renewable portfolio standards.
As of December 2023, the total installed wind power nameplate generating capacity in the United States was 147,500 megawatts (MW), up from 141,300 megawatts (MW) in January 2023, although total energy generation declined slightly due to weather conditions. This capacity is exceeded only by China and the European Union. Thus far, wind power's largest growth in capacity was in 2020, when 16,913 MW of wind power was installed. Following behind it were 2021, during which 13,365 MW were installed, and 2012, which saw the addition of 11,895 MW, representing 26.5% of new power capacity installed in 2012.
By September 2019, 19 states had over 1,000 MW of installed capacity with five states, Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and California, generating over half of all wind energy in the nation. Texas, with 39,450 MW of capacity generating about 25% of the state's total electricity in 2024, has had the most installed wind power capacity of any U.S. state for more than a decade. The state generating the highest percentage of energy from wind power is Iowa, at over 57% of total energy production. North Dakota currently has the most per capita wind generation.
The Alta Wind Energy Center in California is currently the largest completed wind farm in the United States with a capacity of 1,548 MW. When completed in 2026, SunZia Wind in Central New Mexico, will be the largest wind farm in the western hemisphere, with over 900 turbines and a generating capacity of 3,500 MW. GE Power is the largest domestic wind turbine manufacturer.
Many projects to develop wind farms have been held up by new regulations and a slowed federal permitting process by the Trump administration, which is encouraging the use of fossil fuels.
History
The first municipal use of multiple wind-electric turbines in the USA may have been a five turbine system in Pettibone, North Dakota in 1940. These were commercial Wincharger units on guyed towers.
In 1980, the world's first wind farm, consisting of twenty 30 kW wind turbines was installed at Crotched Mountain, in New Hampshire.
From 1974 to the mid-1980s, the United States government worked with industry to advance the technology and enable large commercial wind turbines. A series of NASA wind turbines were developed under a program to create a utility-scale wind turbine industry in the U.S., with funding from the National Science Foundation and later the United States Department of Energy (DOE). 13 experimental wind turbines were put into operation, in four major wind turbine designs. This research and development program pioneered many of the multi-megawatt turbine technologies in use today, including: steel tube towers, variable-speed generators, composite blade materials, partial-span pitch control, as well as aerodynamic, structural, and acoustic engineering design capabilities.
In the 1980s, California began providing tax rebates for wind power. These rebates funded the first major use of wind power for utility electric power. These machines, gathered in large wind parks such as at Altamont Pass, would be considered small and un-economic by modern wind power development standards. In 1985, half of the world's wind energy was generated at Altamont Pass. By the end of 1986, about 6,700 wind turbines, mostly less than 100 kW, had been installed at Altamont, at a cost of about $1 billion, and generated about 550 GWh/year.
Largest wind farms
The nine largest wind farms in the United States are:
Project Capacity (MW) State SunZia Wind and Transmission 3500(2026) New Mexico Alta Wind Energy Center 1548 California Western Spirit Wind Farm 1050 New Mexico Traverse Wind Energy Center 998 Oklahoma Los Vientos Wind Farm 912 Texas Shepherds Flat Wind Farm 845 Oregon Meadow Lake Wind Farm 801 Indiana Roscoe Wind Farm 781Eileen O'Grady. E.ON completes world's largest wind farm in Texas , Reuters, October 1, 2009. Texas Javelina Wind Energy Center 749 Texas Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center 736 Texas
Economics In version 16.0 of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) report published in April 2023, Lazard reports an LCOE for onshore wind between $24 and $75 per megawatt-hour (MWh) and the range for offshore between $72 and $140 per MWh. The lower end of the range ($24/MWh) is, along with utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV), the lowest unsubsidized LCOE. Conventional power plants range from $39/MWh for the low end of Gas Combined Cycle up to $221/MWh for the upper end of Gas Peaking and Nuclear power plants. The average LCOE for onshore wind increased from $36/MWh in 2021 to $50/MWh in 2023. Such increases were seen across the energy sector.
In 2021, the United States Energy Information Administration estimated that the unsubsidized, levelized cost of new onshore wind energy entering service in 2023 will be 3 cents per kwh ($30/MWh). The report also cautioned that levelized costs can be misleading. While levelized cost reflects the cost of building and operating a power plant, it does not recognize the relative value of energy from dispatchable sources such as gas turbine compared to non-dispatchable sources such as wind farms. The report also calculates levelized avoided cost of energy (LACE), which can be used to better reflect the economic value of an energy source.
Subsidies such as the investment tax credit and production tax credit further reduce the cost of wind energy. These subsidies are scheduled to decline and expire in the coming years.
Renewable portfolio standards require renewable energy to exist, most of it intermittent, such as wind and solar, but at the expense of utilities and consumers. Subsidizing this with production tax credits makes wind power cheaper for utilities and consumers, but at the expense of taxpayers.
National trends
Production
Wind generation by year in the United States Wind generation capacity by year in the United States Power from wind generated annually since 2000 (GWh) Installed wind power generating capacity since 1999 (MW)2017 Wind Technologies Market Report
As of 2022, the United States has over 141 GW of installed wind power capacity.
In 2010, newly installed generating capacity was about half of the previous year due to various factors, including the 2008 financial crisis, and the Great Recession.
In 2013, there was a 92% reduction in newly installed generating capacity compared to 2012, due to the late extension of the PTC (see image on the right). The graph at left shows the growth in installed wind generation capacity in the United States based on data from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. In 2008, installed capacity in the U.S. increased by 50% over the prior year. The world average growth rate that year was 28.8%.
By 2014, the wind industry in the USA was able to produce more power at lower cost by using taller wind turbines with longer blades, capturing the faster winds at higher elevations. This opened up new opportunities and in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, the price of power from wind turbines above the ground competed with conventional fossil fuels like coal. Prices had fallen to about 4 cents per kilowatt-hour in some cases and utilities had been increasing the amount of wind energy in their portfolio, saying it is their cheapest option. For power contracts made in the year 2014, the average price of wind power fell to 2.5¢/kWh.
The capacity factor is the ratio of power actually produced divided by the nameplate capacity of the turbines. The overall average capacity factor for wind generation in the US increased from 31.7% in 2008, to 32.3% in 2013.US Energy Information Administration, Table 6.7B, Capacity factors , Electric Power Monthly, October 2014.
In 2023, U.S. wind power production fell by 2% despite an increase of 6.2 gigawatts in capacity, primarily due to weaker-than-normal winds in the Midwest. This marked the first decrease in 25 years and was reflected in the capacity factor dropping to an eight-year low of 33.5%. The decline highlights the challenges of depending on intermittent renewable energy sources like wind, which are significantly influenced by variable climatic conditions such as the El Niño phenomenon, reducing wind speeds.
Wind generation potential
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the contiguous United States has the potential for 10,459 GW of onshore wind power. The capacity could generate 37 petawatt-hours (PW·h) annually, an amount nine times larger than total U.S. electricity consumption. The U.S. also has large wind resources in Alaska, and Hawaii.
In addition to the large onshore wind resources, the U.S. has large offshore wind power potential, with another NREL report released in September 2010 showing that the U.S. has 4,150 GW of potential offshore wind power nameplate capacity, an amount 4 times that of the country's 2008 installed capacity from all sources, of 1,010 GW. Some experts estimate that the entire East Coast could be powered by offshore wind farms.
The U.S. Department of Energy's 2008 report 20% Wind Energy by 2030 envisioned that wind power could supply 20% of all U.S. electric power, which included a contribution of 4% to the nation's total electric power from offshore wind power. In order to achieve this, significant advances in cost, performance and reliability are needed, based on a 2011 report from a coalition of researchers from universities, industry, and government, supported by the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. Obtaining 20% from wind requires about 305 GW of wind turbines, an increase of 16 GW/year after 2018, or an average increase of 14.6%/year, and transmission line improvements. Analysts estimate around 25 GW of added US wind power in 2016–18, Alt URL depending on the Clean Power Plan and PTC extensions. After the PTC phase-out in 2021, additional wind power capacity is expected to be around 5 GW per year.
Wind power by state
In 2019, electric power generation from wind power was 10 percent or more in fourteen U.S. states: Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas. Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Kansas each had more than 20 percent of their electric power generation come from wind. Twenty states now have more than five percent of their generation coming from wind. Iowa became the first state in the nation to generate 50% of its electricity from wind power in 2020, as predicted in 2015.
The five states with the most wind capacity installed at the end of 2020 were:
Texas (33,133 MW) Iowa (11,660 MW) Oklahoma (9,048 MW) Kansas (7,016 MW) Illinois (6,409 MW)
The top five states according to percentage of generation by wind in 2020 were:
Iowa (57.5%) Kansas (43.3%) Oklahoma (35.4%) South Dakota (32.9%) North Dakota (30.8%)
Texas