If you need information on the proposal or construction status of various types of utility-scale generating plants, one of the best resources you can find is the Energy Information Administration (EIA). This federal agency publishes monthly and annual data on new generating capacity in Form EIA-860 at www.eia.gov.
Electrical Marketing’s editors recently downloaded the latest annual data for wind farms, utility-scale photovoltaic generating facilities and other renewables and found more than 500 generating plants at the proposal stage, waiting for approval, or under construction. Click on the Green Box below to view the database. To download the database of projects in an Excel format (.csv) click here.
The largest of these projects is the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind project being built by the Power Company of Wyoming in Carbon County, WY. The utility is building three separate wind farms that will each produce 500 megawatts (MW) when completed in 2022-2024. According to a report in the Casper Star Tribune when these wind farms and future capacity is up and running, they will provide 2,500 MW to 3,000 MW of energy and double the state’s current generating capacity. The report at www.trib.com said the power will be shipped to California via a high-voltage transmission line.
The only other wind farms near the capacity of the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind project are the 500 MW Goodnight wind farm being built by FGE Goodnight in Armstrong County, TX (June 2021 estimated completion date); the 478 MW Hale Community Wind Farm in Hale County, TX, awaiting regulatory approval and the 449.5 MW High Lonesome Wind Power Project now underway in Upton County, TX, underway. Texas is home to 16 of the 50 largest wind and solar projects now under construction or consideration. According to the American Wind Association (AWEA) Second Quarter 2019 Market Report available at www.awea.org, Texas added 734 MW in new capacity through the second quarter, more than any other state, and leads the nation with 25.6 gigawatt (GW) in installed capacity.
While the scale of these renewable projects is quite impressive, they could be dwarfed by two offshore wind farms working their way through the approval process in New York. According to AWEA, if completed, “The 816 MW Empire Wind project and the 880 MW Sunrise Wind project will be capable of supplying enough electricity to power more than a million homes and are expected to create over 1,600 jobs.”
AWEA said in the release on these offshore projects that there’s currently more than 25,740 MW of generating capacity in various stages of development off the East Coast and in the Great Lakes. The association also said the 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm, the first U.S. offshore wind farm, came online in 2016 and that a second offshore project, a 12 MW Dominion Energy wind farm, is now under way off the coast of Virginia.
As a point of reference, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) says a 1.5 MW commercial-scale wind turbine in a moderately windy area (with a 35% capacity factor) can power between 400 to 500 homes.
The EIA database also includes some large PV projects, including 12 jobs of at least 200 MW. The largest is the 300 MW Hecate Energy Highland solar farm awaiting regulatory approval in Highland, OH. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), a 100M W utility-scale solar generating facility can power 19,000 homes.
Footnotes for table: Source - Energy Information Administration (EIA) monthly and Annual Electric Generator Reports. Status key: T: Regulatory approvals received. Not under construction; U: Under construction, less than or equal to 50% complete; V: Under construction, more than 50% complete; TS: (TS) Construction complete, but not yet in commercial operation