Small wind power projects expanding into new markets

An electric vehicle manufacturer, two schools and two Alaskan villages: these are just some of the organizations using wind turbines to help meet their energy needs.

For the last eight months, researchers from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been scouring the nation for information about who installed distributed wind energy projects.

Distributed wind refers to wind turbine installations that power small utilities, individual homes, businesses, farms or facilities. They sit on the "distribution" side of the power grid to serve on-site or local loads, rather than generating energy for transmission across regions.

The findings, issued in the Distributed Wind Market Report 2024 Edition, led by PNNL, show steady growth. More wind turbines were installed in 2023 than each of the previous two years.

Distributed wind projects received around $12.4 million in funding from state incentives, federal incentives, tax credits and benefits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Rural Energy for America Program in 2023, more than double compared to each of the previous two years.

Distributed wind is also reaching new, faraway locales, like the northernmost regions of Alaska, and new markets, like electric vehicle manufacturing.

Since 2003, about 92,000 distributed wind turbines—which together produce 1,110 megawatts of power—have been installed across the United States.

"We're sharing the expanse of applications that distributed wind can support," said Lindsay Sheridan, a wind energy analyst at PNNL and lead author on the report. "Distributed wind can support a farmer, a small business owner, a school, an industrial facility and so much more."

Distributed wind across the nation

In 2023, 16 states added 10.5 MW from 1,999 turbines, the new report notes. Most of the installed distributed wind capacity was from large turbines, which can produce more than 1 MW of power when working at full capacity.

In a pivot for distributed wind, most turbine capacity installed in 2023 supported on-site power for manufacturing or industrial plants rather than distribution on the grid for local use, the report authors found.

In Illinois, for example, the electric vehicle company Rivian installed a 2.8 MW wind turbine to power an EV manufacturing plant—a new market for distributed wind, Sheridan noted. In Ohio, a lime manufacturing plant installed three 1.5 MW wind turbines.

Commercial customers accounted for 42% of distributed wind projects in 2023, while agricultural customers made up 34% of projects. Two universities, the State University of New York College of Technology at Canton and Utah Valley University, were also adopters of distributed wind in 2023.

Alaska joined Ohio and Illinois to lead the nation in new distributed wind installations, with those three states representing 78% of the new distributed wind capacity installed in 2023.

Wind power offsets costs, carbon emissions in Alaska

The Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC) installed a 900-kilowatt wind turbine in 2023 to help power two villages, Stebbins and St. Michael. Previously, all of the communities' electricity came from burning diesel, which can become incredibly costly to transport to the remote villages that the cooperative serves, said AVEC's CEO Bill Stamm. Most of AVEC's customers live in villages that can only be accessed by barge or plane.

The new turbine will provide about 35% of total generation for Stebbins and St. Michael. It will displace more than 100,000 gallons per year of diesel fuel , saving them more than $360,000 in generation fuel costs. It'll also reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1,000 metric tons annually.

"These folks are stewards of their land, and they realize that anything they can do to reduce the carbon footprint is important," Stamm said, noting that most of AVEC's cooperative members are Native Alaskans.

"We're seeing a lot of the effects of climate change here. We've got communities that are losing the permafrost, which everything is built on here. People are interested in getting off of diesel as much as possible."

"On the economic side, diesel is very expensive, so anything we can do to remove that burden is appropriate," Stamm continued.

Future customers for distributed wind

The annual Distributed Wind Market Report helps government agencies determine not only who is investing in distributed wind, but also who else can benefit from it, Sheridan said.

"The report helps us identify where the gaps are. DOE uses the report to identify areas where they might want to invest in future research and technical assistance," she continued.

There is significant funding available for distributed wind, the report notes. One example is a joint effort between DOE and USDA called the Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy initiative. The initiative's goal is to work through USDA's Rural Energy for America Program to provide 400 farmers with small-scale wind projects.