Wind power in Colorado

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.

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]

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

Colorado Wind Generation in 2013

See also

• List of U.S. states by electricity production from renewable sources
• Wind power in the United States

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wind power in Colorado.

• National Wind Technology Center

Wind power in the United States
American Wind Energy Association NASA wind turbines United States Wind Energy Policy Wind farms in the US Offshore wind farms in the US Wind Powering America
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Large wind farms	Alta Wind Energy Center Altamont Pass Biglow Canyon Buffalo Gap Capricorn Ridge Cedar Creek Fowler Ridge Highland Horse Hollow Klondike Lone Star Meadow Lake Panther Creek Peetz Peñascal Roscoe San Gorgonio Pass Shepherds Flat Tehachapi Pass Windy Point/Windy Flats
Wind power companies	Aermotor Windmill Company Deepwater Wind GE Wind Energy Iberdrola Renovables Infigen Energy Invenergy National Wind Native Wind NextEra Energy Resources Siemens Wind Power UGE International Vestas Wind Capital Group