Hawaii, California, and New York are touting big plans to get their electricity from renewable sources, according to Daniel Gross at Slate. Hawaii has passed a law requiring utilities to get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2045. California and New York are targeting 50% by 2030.
However, Iowa is achieving impressive results now. “Blessed with lots of open space, consistent and strong winds, and farm owners eager to garner extra income from planting wind turbines alongside corn, Iowa has been one of the epicenters of America’s long-running wind boom,” writes Gross. “In 2008, about 4% of Iowa’s electricity generation came from wind. But so many wind farms have been built in the state that in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, ‘wind provided 31.3% of Iowa’s total electricity generation in 2015, a larger share than any other state.’”
Iowa continues to get more than half of electricity from coal, but wind continues to gain ground. Last week, the state approved a $3.6 billion project to build up to 1,000 2-MW wind turbines, which when complete, Gross reports, will boost the state’s share of electricity from wind alone to 40%. That figure could reach 85% by 2020, as other wind farms are added and coal plants are phased out.
Read the complete Slate article here.
See related article “DoE labs issue reports on wind power.”
