Nearly 1GW of wind comes online in US after ‘sluggish’ start to 2023

The ACP said developers brought 105 projects online in the second quarter, adding up to 5.2GW of clean power capacity to the grid in the US, of which 968MW was wind power.

The Q2 figures bring the total of installed US renewable energy up to 237GW, of which more than half, 146GW, was onshore wind and 42MW offshore, while the remainder was solar (80GW) and storage (11GW)

The 454MW Chevelon Butte wind farm in Arizona, operated by AES Corp, was the largest wind project brought online in the second quarter of Q2.

California led for new renewable power coming online in Q2, with a total of 867MW. The west coast state was followed by Texas on 727MW and Michigan in third place with 537MW. However, Michigan was the only state in the top three to install new wind capacity in Q2. 

Mixed picture

The 5.2GW total was the second highest Q2 installation figure in the industry’s history, said the ACP, only topped by 2021’s Q2 total of nearly 7.2GW.

But the ACP said a sluggish start to the year meant that, at the halfway point of 2023, total annual installations of renewable power were nearly a fifth lower than for the same period last year.

Top developer pipelines

The ACP report also ranked energy developers in terms of their renewable energy pipelines and gave NextEra the top slot, with 13.8GW in development, nearly 10% of all capacity currently in development.  Next Era’s pipeline was dominated by solar PV projects, followed by onshore wind and storage.

Invenergy was ranked second for its development pipeline of nearly 7.6GW, again dominated by solar PV, while Ørsted’s third place ranking, of nearly 6.2GW, was mainly focused around offshore wind development.

The IRA effect

The effect of President Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act package of tax benefits for the industry was “evident”, according to the ACP.

The current 145GW pipeline of renewable projects in the US represented a 13% increase on the same quarter last year and a 43% increase since Q1 2021.