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Wind power in Colorado

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Colorado wind resources

The US state of Colorado has vast wind energy resources and the installed capacity of wind power in Colorado has been growing significantly in recent years due to international mass adoption of wind power and the state's aggressive renewable portfolio standard that requires 30% of the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020.[1]

Status

Colorado Wind Generation by Year
Million kilowatt-hours of electricity[2]

Generation

The graph at left shows the growth in wind energy generation for Colorado since 2005. Wind power accounted for 14.2% of total electricity generated in Colorado during 2015.[3]

Potential

Colorado has the potential to install 387,220 MW of wind power generation according to a 2010 U.S. DOE study.[4]

Mandates

Colorado voters approved Amendment 37 which required the state's largest utilities to obtain 3 percent of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2007, and 10 percent by 2015.[5] More recently, the state approved a renewable portfolio standard that requires 30% of the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020.[1]

Notable projects

Rated at 574.8 MW, the Peetz Table Wind Energy Center is the largest wind farm in the state and provides enough electricity to power nearly 120,000 homes. It consists of 282 GE Wind Energy & 66 Siemens Wind turbines. The site has 4 farms: Peetz Table, Logan, & Northern Colorado 1 & 2.[citation needed]

The Cedar Creek Wind Farm was built in 2007 and has 300 MW of generation capacity from 274 wind turbines.[6] Cedar Creek II was built in 2011 and has 250 MW of generation capacity from 60 Nordex and 63 GE wind turbines.[7]

Spring Canyon Wind Energy Center and Spring Canyon Expansion in northeast Colorado have a combined capacity rating of over 120 MW spread over 75 wind turbines. These 2 neighboring sites were built by Chicago-based clean energy company Invenergy LLC in 2006 and 2014 respectively. Invenergy continues operation of these sites which provide power to the Platte River Power Authority including the cities of Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont in Colorado.[8]

Wind generation

Colorado Wind Generation Capacity by Year
Megawatts of generation capacity[9]
Colorado Wind Generation (GWh, Million kWh)
Year Total Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2010 3,452 245 226 306 364 331 271 213 216 257 275 341 416
2011 5,200 375 350 355 418 459 385 276 310 297 507 551 499
2012 5,969 629 544 560 551 426 489 347 432 345 478 495 672
2013 7,382 672 718 697 565 582 598 527 395 561 686 643 736

Sources:EIA Electric Power Monthly, EIA Electricity Data Browser[10][11][12]

Colorado Wind Generation in 2013

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Eber, Kevin and Ernie Tucker (March 26, 2010). "Colorado Boosts its RPS to 30% by 2020". RenewableEnergyWorld. Retrieved December 28, 2010.
  2. ^ "EIA - Electricity Data Browser, Table 1.17". U.S. Department of Energy. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  3. ^ "U.S. number one in the world in wind energy production". American Wind Energy Association. February 29, 2016.
  4. ^ National Renewable Energy Laboratory (February 4, 2010). "State wind energy potential (2010)". U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  5. ^ "Colorado Voters Pass Renewable Energy Standard". RenewableEnergyWorld.com. November 3, 2004. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  6. ^ Full operation of Cedar Creek wind farm announced
  7. ^ BP, Sempra Celebrate Completion Of Cedar Creek Wind Farm
  8. ^ "Invenergy Wraps Up Spring Canyon Expansion Wind Energy Center". Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  9. ^ "Wind Exchange: Installed Wind Capacity". U.S. Department of Energy. March 25, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  10. ^ EIA. "Electricity Data Browser - Net generation for wind". United States Department of Energy. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  11. ^ EIA (July 27, 2012). "Electric Power Monthly Table 1.17.B." United States Department of Energy. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  12. ^ EIA (July 27, 2012). "Electric Power Monthly Table 1.17.B." United States Department of Energy. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
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