![California wind resource map 50m 800](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/California_wind_resource_map_50m_800.jpg)
Wind power in California had initiative and early development during Governor
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of ...
's first two terms in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The state's
wind power
Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically ...
capacity has grown by nearly 350% since 2001, when it was less than 1,700 MW.
In 2016, wind energy (including that supplied by other states) supplied about 6.9% of California's total electricity needs, or enough to power more than 1.3 million households.
Most of California's wind generation is found in the Tehachapi area of
Kern County, California
Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield.
Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county s ...
, with some large projects in Solano, Contra Costa and Riverside counties as well. California is among the states with the largest amount of installed wind power capacity.
In recent years, California has lagged behind other states when it comes to the installation of wind power. It was ranked 4th overall for wind power electrical generation at the end of 2016 behind
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
,
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...
, and
Oklahoma. As of 2019, California had 5,973 megawatts (MW) of wind power
generating capacity installed.
History
California was the first U.S. state where large
wind farm
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...
s were developed, beginning in the early 1980s. By 1995, California produced 30 percent of the entire world's wind-generated electricity.
Wind power in Texas surpassed the production in California to become the leader in the United States.
Historically, most of California's wind power output has been in three primary regions:
Altamont Pass wind farm (east of San Francisco);
Tehachapi Pass wind farm (south east of Bakersfield) and
San Gorgonio Pass wind farm (near Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles).
A fourth area, the
Montezuma Hills
The Montezuma Hills comprise a small range of low-elevation hills at the northern banks of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and southwestern Sacramento Valley in California in the United States.
Geography
The Montezuma Hills are located i ...
of
Solano County
Solano County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 453,491. The county seat is Fairfield.
Solano County comprises the Vallejo–Fairfield, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which i ...
, was developed in 2005–2009, with the large
Shiloh wind power plant.
The Alta Wind Energy Center is a wind farm located in
Tehachapi Pass in Kern County.
Kern County is reviewing a number of other proposed wind projects that would generate a combined 4,600 megawatts of
renewable energy if approved.
Growth
In 2011, 921.3 megawatts of new production was installed. Most of that activity occurred in the Tehachapi area of Kern County, with some big projects in Solano, Contra Costa and Riverside counties as well.
California had a total of 5,662 megawatts of installed wind generation capacity at the end of 2015.
After leading the country for many years, California ranked fourth nationwide in terms of capacity, behind Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma in 2016.
In 2016, California used about 285,700 GWh and generated 13,500 GWh of wind energy in state.
Wind energy supplied about 6.9% of California's total electricity needs in 2017 (including power supplied from other states in this case),
and 7.35% in 2019. By the end of 2019, installed wind generation capacity increased to 5,973 megawatts.
Due to higher average winds in the plains area of the U.S., California ranked fifth in wind generation in 2018.
In January 2018, the
Tule Wind Project came online. Located in eastern
San Diego County
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...
, the facility has 57 wind turbines which collectively generate 131.1 megawatts of electricity. There are plans to expand this project by an additional 24 turbines in the future.
In its current configuration, the installation is able to power an estimated 40,000 homes.
CAISO
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is a non-profit Independent System Operator (ISO) serving California. It oversees the operation of California's bulk electric power system, transmission lines, and electricity market generated a ...
tested the wind farm's
synchronverter
Synchronverters or virtual synchronous generators are inverters which mimic synchronous generators (SG) to provide "synthetic inertia" for ancillary services in electric power systems. Inertia is a property of standard synchronous generators a ...
in 2018, and found it could perform some of the
grid services similar or better than traditional generators.
In February 2018, Scout Clean Energy of Colorado won the rights to modernize the Gonzaga Ridge wind farm which is located in
Pacheco State Park. Rated at 16.5 megawatts, the Gonzaga Ridge facility currently uses 1980s era wind turbines which are smaller, less cost-effective, and overall far less efficient at generating energy than those which currently being produced. The electrical output of Gonzaga Ridge after modernization is projected to be between 65 MW and 80 MW.
Offshore wind
A 2009
Stanford University study of California offshore wind potential identified a site off
Cape Mendocino
Cape Mendocino (Spanish: ''Cabo Mendocino'', meaning "Cape of Mendoza"), which is located approximately north of San Francisco, is located on the Lost Coast entirely within Humboldt County, California, United States. At 124° 24' 34" W longitude ...
that could provide uninterrupted year-round power from a 1500 MW wind farm that would produce an average of 790 MW. Three types of offshore wind power were studied, with the conclusion that from 12,300 to 19,700 GWh/yr could be delivered from 1,997 to 3,331 MW of monopile wind turbines installed in up to , from 38,200 to 73,000 GWh/yr could be delivered from 6,202 to 12,374 MW of multi-leg wind turbines in , and from 462,100 to 568,200 GWh/yr from 73,025 to 91,707 MW of floating turbine foundation wind turbines in from , such as those being studied for use off the coast of
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
by the Ocean Energy Institute and the DeepCwind Consortium.
In April 2018, several power development companies joined with Redwood Coast Energy Authority to explore the idea of creating a large-scale wind farm off of the Northern California coast. Deep water has hindered development off the coast of California, making the use floating turbines more feasible than fixed turbines. The group decided to propose instead. RCEA and the development companies intended to file a lease with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the summer of 2018 for the 120-150 MW project. The Humboldt Project will be located just over west of
Eureka, California
Eureka (Wiyot: ''Jaroujiji'', Hupa: ''do'-wi-lotl-ding'', Karuk: ''uuth'') is the principal city and county seat of Humboldt County in the Redwood Empire region of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Ba ...
and estimates have the date of completion to be sometime in 2024. In 2022, the US
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, established in 2010 by Secretarial Order.
The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) states: "...the outer Continental Shelf is a v ...
(BOEM) issued a statement of no significant environmental impact, and California set a target of 25 GW of offshore wind by 2045.
Annual generation
![California Electricity Generation Sources Pie Chart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/California_Electricity_Generation_Sources_Pie_Chart.svg)
Source:
See also
*
Solar power in California
Solar power in California includes utility-scale solar power plants as well as local distributed generation, mostly from rooftop photovoltaics. It has been growing rapidly because of high insolation, community support, declining solar costs, ...
*
Renewable energy in California
California produces more renewable energy than any other state in the United States except Texas. In 2018, California ranked first in the nation as a producer of electricity from solar, geothermal, and biomass resources and fourth in the nation in ...
*
Wind power in the United States
Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. From January through December 2021, 379.8 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 9.23% of electricity in the ...
*
Renewable energy in the United States
According to preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration, renewable energy accounted for about 12.6% of total primary energy consumption and about 19.8% of the domestically produced electricity in the United States in 202 ...
*
List of wind farms in the United States
This is a list of large wind farms in the United States. Many of the wind farms in the United States are located in the Great Plains.
Onshore wind farms
Listed are wind farms with a generating capacity of at least 150 megawatts (MW) or any ...
*
Clipper Windpower
Clipper Windpower is a wind turbine manufacturing company founded in 2001 by James G.P. Dehlsen.
References
External links
Daily California renewable energy generation report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wind Power In California