Policies and Market Factors Driving Wind Power Development in the United States

Technical Report · Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/15004298· OSTI ID:15004298

Bird, L; Parsons, B; Gagliano, T; Brown, M; Wiser, R; Bolinger, M

In the United States, there has been substantial recent growth in wind energy generating capacity, with growth averaging 24% annually during the past five years. With this growth, an increasing number of states are experiencing investment in wind energy. Wind installations currently exist in about half of all U.S. states. This paper explores the policies and market factors that have been driving utility-scale wind energy development in the United States, particularly in the states that have achieved a substantial amount of wind energy investment in recent years. Although there are federal policies and overarching market issues that are encouraging investment nationally, much of the recent activity has resulted from state-level policies or localized market drivers. In this paper, we identify the key policies, incentives, regulations, and markets affecting development, and draw lessons from the experience of leading states that may be transferable to other states or regions. We provide detailed discussions of the drivers for wind development in a dozen leading states-California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-99-GO10337
• OSTI ID: 15004298
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP-620-34599
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
ANALYSIS
WIND ENERGY
WIND CAPACITY
SYSTEM BENEFITS FUNDS
INTEGRATED RESOURCE PLANNING
GREEN POWER MARKETS
PROPERTY-TAX INCENTIVES
SALES-TAX INCENTIVES
STATE-LEVEL DRIVERS
AWEA
AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION
CALIFORNIA
COLORADO
IOWA
KANSAS
MINNESOTA
NEW YORK
OREGON
PENNSYLVANIA
TEXAS
WASHINGTON
WEST VIRGINIA
WYOMING
Energy Policy and Analysis
Energy Analysis
Wind Energy
Wind and Hydropower Technologies