WOW! Who would have guessed that so many Windfarms have been built. Apparently, regardless of the partisan rhetoric, both parties believe in WIND POWER. Not sure if these numbers include the new windfarms built in 2011 and 2012.
Here are two tools you can use to see where these windfarms are. We'll discuss some creative ways to use these below:
List of the States that have windfarms, and the number of turbines in each state.
According to this listing, the following states do not have windfarms:
Alabama
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississipipi
Nevada
North Carolina (Home of Duke Energy Resources, wind/solar power developer)
South Carolina
List of the 878 wind farms present in the United States at the end of 2010
I've been looking into wind energy development for a little over a year now and am thrilled that the USA is using much more wind power than the discussions in the House of Representatives would have us believe.
Hats Off America! We have to ween ourselves off of planet detroying technologies.
That said, words fall short of the rabbit holes we can fall into by simply trying to find out who is building the windfarms and who actually owns them.
These tools are provided so you can examine who's who and what's what for your state.
Below I will demonstrate how I use these two tools above, and how I navigate the rabbit holes.
Good luck!
Also, for those interested in finding wind farms on Google Earth first Google search the name of the wind farm to find out its general location, then go to Google Earth and look for what appear as stitch-like formations. Here's an example. Below this picture you will find another tool to learn more about location and size.
Ainsworth Wind Farm, Nebraska
Another great tool is the Wind Turbine Build Out interactive map. If you find a wind farm in your area using Google Earth, jot down the longitude and latitude and use the Wind Turbine Build Out tool to see its county location and approximate size.
You can also use this tool to see if there are any wind turbines with 45 miles of your long/lat location. Just enter your coordinates if you are interested.
Here's the Ainsworth Wind Farm pictured above
This is part the Buffalo Ridge Wind Farm in Minnesota which includes the original Lake Benton Windfarms. This picture is offered to help those using Google Earth to spot wind farms for a larger area. Again, note what looks like stitches. These are the wind turbines and the road strips that connect them.
So, wind farm enthusiasts, enjoy these tools. Happy Wind Farm hunting.
There is a huge amount of information within these two links.
The List of States with windfarms might be of greatest interesting to readers looking for windfarm developments and their owners/operators.
As I have mentioned, finding specific information for a wind farm can be complicated because it requires clicking on each tidbit offered in the two tools; however, if you want to know the history and present ownership details, it's a worthwhile exercise.
Minnesota is home to some of the oldest and largest wind farms in the country. Like most wind farms, they are owned by private companies.
I'll walk you through how to investigate your wind farms using this example.
Minnesota.
Who could have guessed that Minnesota is generating 2,817,660 kw with 2002 Wind Turbines as of the dates covered by these reports?
Let's look at the two Lake Benton Windfarms, the oldest large windfarms listed.
Enron built these turbines.
This website is listed http://www.gepower.com/ which opens as http://www.ge-energy.com/
The address is listed at 4200 Wildwood Parkway, Atlanta, Georgia and this check out as legitimate address. Here's how the relationship flow goes:
GE Wind Energy is a branch of GE Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric.
The present owner/operator is AES.
For more information, here are a couple of great articles.
U.S. Wind-Turbine Installations Rose 31% In 2011, AWEA Says
2012 Wind Power News from North American Wind Power
Wikipedia has some great information as well.