US companies increasing captive wind power

American companies are increasingly making their own power - and sales - with wind turbines located near the factories and buildings that consume the power they make, concludes a report released today.

This 7.5-megawatt distributed wind project generates energy for the Whirpool and Ball corporations in Findlay, Ohio/ Image courtesy of Lauren Powell/One Energy

The 2015 Distributed Wind Market Report offers the fourth annual analysis of a growing field called distributed wind, which involves generating wind power near where it will be used instead of purchasing power from large, centralised wind farms. Distributed wind can range from a small, solitary turbine at a remote cabin to several large turbines powering an entire neighborhood.

"Wind plays a key role in the rising area of distributed energy," said report co-author, Alice Orrell, an energy analyst at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

"Although distributed wind is not as widespread as distributed solar, new third-party financing options similar to the lease model that spurred growth in the residential solar market could also grow distributed wind," added PNNL energy analyst Nik Foster, the other co-author.

The report's key findings include:

• 37 per cent of the new distributed wind capacity added in 2015 was for industrial uses, including factories, processing plants, and operation facilities.
• Companies using distributed wind include the Whirlpool and Ball corporations in Ohio, soap manufacturer Method in Illinois, and Stafford County Flour Mills in Kansas.
• Exports of U.S.-made small wind turbines, which generate up to 100 kilowatts, doubled from 2014 to 2015 - adding 21.5 megawatts of capacity in 2015. Small wind exports have accounted for more than $310 million in combined sales between 2012 and 2015.
• Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan are among the largest importers of US-made small wind turbines.
• 28 megawatts of new US distributed wind power capacity was added in 2015 by installing 1,713 turbines. This brings the US to a total of 934 megawatts of distributed wind capacity and 75,000 turbines installed since 2003, or about 1 percent of all U.S. wind energy capacity installed since then.
• Ohio, Nebraska and Connecticut led the U.S. in new distributed wind power capacity in 2015 - respectively adding 7.7, 7 and 5 megawatts, due to a large project in each of those states.
• The estimated cost of energy made from a sample of small distributed wind turbines was 11 cents per kilowatt hour in 2015, compared to overall residential electric rates that run between about 9 and 21 cents in the Continental U.S.
• Annual distributed wind capacity additions have declined since 2012, when federal stimulus funding spurred renewable energy's expansion.