Investments in and development of wind power in the US are very unevenly distributed. That is shown in four animated maps at Vox in their article, the stunningly lopsided growth of wind power in the US, in 4 maps. They explore why a huge swath of the country has almost no wind turbines at all.
[...] The major driver to invest in wind in many states is renewable portfolio standards, which mandate a minimum amount of electricity to come from renewable sources, like hydroelectric, wind, solar, and geothermal power plants. While federal incentives like the production tax credit, which benefits wind energy installations, apply across the country, state-level programs make a major difference on the ground.
“The states that have stronger RPSs are the places where you see renewables being deployed more actively,” said Ian Baring-Gould, a technology deployment manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “In places that don’t have RPSs, the utilities don’t have as much motivation to develop renewables.”
Take a wild guess which states don’t have RPSs
Wind speeds are not even around the country, so turbine distribution is not expected to be either. However, there is a long way to go before the turbine distribution reaches parity with the potential.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @07:35AM (1 child)
the state as a whole, yes. But there are places like San Gorgonio Pass (near Palm Springs), the mountains between Oakland and Livermore, etc. that are quite windy most of the time because of their geography, much like the Columbia Gorge & Plateau. Those areas get good steady winds too, and are close to feed either huge population area grids or feed into the BPA backbone.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 07 2018, @06:56PM
Surprisingly, despite significant wind every single time I go there, and a huge need for power next door, the very green people have yet to install any turbine along the Malibu coast.