US wind is having its best year since 2022. What happens after 2027 is the open question.
The United States has 167 GW of wind turning, which made 461.6 TWh last year: a tenth of its electricity. 7.2 GW has come online in 2026 so far, led by the 3.65 GW SunZia project. A tax-credit deadline and a fight over offshore wind will decide what follows.
This Wind Watch looks at US wind through the government's own data: the Energy Information Administration's monthly inventory of every generator (EIA-860M, September 2026), its plant-by-plant generation figures (EIA-923), and the US Wind Turbine Database for the turbines themselves.
A tenth of the country's power
US wind farms generated 461.6 TWh in 2025, according to EIA's final figures. Ember puts it at 464 TWh, 10.3% of the country's electricity. The fleet ran at a capacity factor of 33.7% across the 1,289 plants that were running all year.
Output is strongly seasonal. March, the windiest month, produced 49.7 TWh; September produced 26.0 TWh, barely half as much. So far 2026 is ahead: the 604 plants that report every month generated 6.2% more from January to August than in the same months of 2025, before counting any new farms.
US wind generation by month, 2025
Texas and the Great Plains
US wind is concentrated in a band from Texas to the Dakotas. Texas alone has 44.5 GW, 27% of the national fleet, and generated 130 TWh in 2025: more than the next three states together. The top five states (Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and Illinois) hold 54% of all US wind capacity.
The best sites are in the northern plains: North Dakota's farms ran at a capacity factor of 38.5% in 2025, and Iowa's at 38.1%. California's, among the oldest in the country, ran at 26.7%. The biggest single generator was Great Prairie Wind in the Texas Panhandle, at 4.1 TWh.
Wind operating, by state
2026: SunZia and a rebound
US wind building peaked in 2020 and 2021, when developers raced to qualify for the production tax credit before an earlier phase-down, then slowed: about 5 GW came online in 2024 and 6 GW in 2025. This year has turned that around. 7.2 GW had come online by the end of September, already more than in any full year since 2022, and EIA's inventory lists another 3.2 GW due before the end of the year.
Half of this year's total is one project. Pattern Energy's SunZia Wind in New Mexico, 3,650 MW across 916 turbines, began commercial operation in June. EIA calls it the largest wind farm in the United States. It sends its power 550 miles west to Arizona and California over its own transmission line. Offshore, Vineyard Wind 1 (800 MW) off Massachusetts finished construction in March.
Wind capacity coming online each year
If the rest arrives on time, 2026 will end at about 10.4 GW, the most since 2021. EIA's outlook in February expected 11.8 GW for the year.
Bigger turbines, three makers
New US onshore turbines have more than doubled in size in twenty years: from 1.6 MW on average in 2005 to 3.0 MW in 2020 and 4.1 MW in 2025, with rotors growing from 84 to 145 metres across. The market is dominated by three makers. GE Vernova's turbines account for 48% of the operating capacity whose turbine model is recorded, Vestas for 27% and Siemens Gamesa for 15%.
Share of operating US wind capacity, by turbine maker
Offshore: almost 1 GW turning, 5 GW being built
US offshore wind has grown from 42 MW at the start of 2024 to 972 MW today, as South Fork (2024) and Vineyard Wind 1 were completed. Another 5.1 GW is under construction in four farms, which together will take it past 6 GW once Coastal Virginia, Sunrise and Empire Wind finish in 2027.
All of it has been built under federal pressure. The Interior Department halted Revolution Wind in August 2025, and a judge lifted the order a month later. In December 2025 it ordered work to stop on the five farms then under construction, citing national security. Courts blocked every one of those orders by February 2026, and in April the department let its deadline to appeal pass. In October it asked a federal court to send Revolution Wind's approval back for review, although the farm already supplies power.
| Offshore wind farm | State | MW | Status, October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block Island | Rhode Island | 30 | Operating since 2016 |
| Coastal Virginia pilot | Virginia | 12 | Operating |
| South Fork | New York | 130 | Operating since 2024 |
| Vineyard Wind 1 | Massachusetts | 800 | Operating: construction finished in March 2026 |
| Revolution Wind | Rhode Island | 704 | More than half built; final turbine installed in September, partial power since March |
| Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind | Virginia | 2,640 | Under construction; power since March 2026, due to finish in 2027 |
| Sunrise Wind | New York | 924 | Under construction; due in 2027 |
| Empire Wind 1 | New York | 810 | More than half built; due in 2027 |
Capacity as EIA lists it, except Revolution Wind's, which is its developers' figure (EIA lists 715 MW). Status from EIA-860M (September 2026) and project news.
The deadline
The next few years depend on a tax deadline. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, a wind farm keeps the federal clean electricity credits only if construction began by 4 July 2026, or if it is in service by the end of 2027. Treasury guidance in August 2025 made starting construction harder to prove, removing the option of qualifying by spending 5% of a project's cost.
EIA's inventory shows what is in hand: 23.5 GW of wind planned, of which 14.4 GW is under construction. The largest share, 9.9 GW, is due in 2027. What the inventory can't yet show is how much new wind will start once those projects are built.
Repowering
Most of the fleet is young. 9.9 GW, 6% of operating capacity, came online in 2006 or earlier and is now 20 years old or more: the usual age to replace turbines with bigger ones on the same site. Only 1.1 GW has been retired since 2020.
The twelve biggest states
| State | Operating (GW) | Share of US | Generation 2025 (TWh) | Capacity factor 2025 | Planned (GW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 44.5 | 26.7% | 130.1 | 34.1% | 4.8 |
| Oklahoma | 13.7 | 8.2% | 37.3 | 33.2% | 0.0 |
| Iowa | 13.4 | 8.0% | 43.6 | 38.1% | 0.3 |
| Kansas | 9.7 | 5.8% | 29.2 | 34.7% | 0.5 |
| Illinois | 8.7 | 5.2% | 25.1 | 35.0% | 2.3 |
| New Mexico | 8.1 | 4.8% | 14.4 | 36.8% | 0.2 |
| California | 6.6 | 3.9% | 15.1 | 26.7% | 0.2 |
| Colorado | 5.9 | 3.5% | 17.0 | 36.3% | 1.0 |
| North Dakota | 5.0 | 3.0% | 15.4 | 38.5% | 0.6 |
| Minnesota | 5.0 | 3.0% | 15.0 | 34.6% | 0.4 |
| Wyoming | 4.7 | 2.8% | 12.7 | 35.3% | 4.1 |
| Oregon | 4.2 | 2.5% | – | – | – |
Operating and planned capacity from EIA-860M (September 2026); generation and capacity factors from EIA-923 for 2025. Capacity factors cover plants running all year. "–": not in the top ten for generation. Every state is in the free table, and the farms are on the country page.
Method and sources
- Capacity from EIA-860M, September 2026 (public domain): every wind generator reported to EIA as operating, planned or retired. Generators out of service and not expected back are excluded. Planned stages as EIA records them: under construction includes plants more than half built and plants testing before commercial operation.
- Generation from EIA-923: the final 2025 file, including EIA's estimates for plants that report once a year, and the 2026 monthly file for the comparison with 2025 (plants reporting every month, January to August, against their own figures a year earlier).
- Capacity factor: generation divided by the most a plant could make, for the 1,289 plants (153.1 GW) whose generators were all running before 2025 and unchanged since.
- Additions by year: the capacity still operating, by the year each generator went into operation. Annual installation counts differ slightly, because they include generators since retired and date repowered turbines differently.
- Turbine makers and sizes from the US Wind Turbine Database (public domain), through Revolution Energy's farm list, which records 1,872 operating US farms (168.6 GW). Turbine sizes are capacity-weighted averages for onshore farms.
- Figures as of 28 October 2026. Questions about the method: mail@revolutionenergy.net.
Checked against published figures:
- EIA put US utility-scale wind at 161.1 GW at the end of 2025. Our 167.0 GW today includes the 7.2 GW added since.
- Ember gives 158.8 GW and 464 TWh for 2025, and a 10.3% share of US electricity. EIA's final file gives 461.6 TWh.
- For 2025 additions, FERC's figures give 5.8 GW and Wood Mackenzie 8.2 GW. Ours, 6.3 GW, sits between them: the sources date and count additions differently.
- EIA's February 2026 outlook expected 11.8 GW in 2026, including SunZia. SunZia's size, turbine count and start date match EIA's and the trade press's reports.
- Offshore status from Canary Media (September 2026), Industrial Info (October 2026), Electrek (April 2026) and the Environmental Defense Fund on the court rulings.
- The tax rules from the Act and Treasury's Notice 2025-42, as summarised by law firms.
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