How wind power grew in United States
On 19 October 1941 the 1.25 MW Smith-Putnam turbine on Grandpa's Knob, Vermont, fed power into a utility grid. The country's first wind farm followed in late 1980, when U.S. Windpower installed 30 kW turbines on Crotched Mountain, New Hampshire. California then led a boom, building about 900 MW by 1985, when the US held about 95% of the world's wind capacity.
Federal and state tax credits and ten-year contracts in California drove that boom. The federal credits expired in 1985, and by the end of 1997 the US share of world capacity had fallen to 22%. The production tax credit was enacted in 1992 and covered wind from 1994. It lapsed five times between 1999 and 2014 and was renewed each time. A law of July 2025 ends the tax credits for wind placed in service after 2027, unless construction began before 5 July 2026. GE Vernova and Vestas supplied 56% and 40% of the onshore turbines installed in 2024.
Wind generated 464 TWh in 2025, about 10% of US electricity. Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas and Illinois produced about 52% of it. In May 2026 developers reported about 5,089 MW of offshore capacity planned off New York, Rhode Island and Virginia. Under the 2025 law, projects that start construction in 2026 must be in service by the end of 2030 to keep the credit.
Sources: Stanford Law School · Wind-Works · US Energy Information Administration · Congressional Research Service · Gibson Dunn · GreenTechLead · US Energy Information Administration · US Energy Information Administration
Where United States's power comes from, 2025
| Source | Share of electricity |
|---|---|
| Gas | 40.0% |
| Nuclear | 17.4% |
| Coal | 16.3% |
| Wind | 10.3% |
| Solar | 8.6% |
| Hydro | 5.3% |
| Bioenergy | 1.0% |
| Other fossil fuels | 0.7% |
| Geothermal and other renewables | 0.4% |
Wind farms in United States
We track 2,022 wind farms in United States: 171.5 GW operating and 79.6 GW under construction, consented or planned, with 44.7 GW of it offshore. Each one's owners, turbines and status are in the Wind app.
Electricity data: Ember yearly electricity data (CC BY 4.0). Wind farms: national registers and Global Energy Monitor; see data sources.
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