Wind power in Illinois

Wind power in Illinois provided nearly 10% of the state's generated electrical power in 2020 powering 1,231,900 homes.[1] At the end of 2020, Illinois had 6,300 megawatts (MW) of wind power installed, ranking fifth among states for installed wind turbine capacity.[2] An additional 1,100 MW of wind power was under construction across the state at the end of 2020.

Mendota Hills Wind Farm in northern Illinois

The vast majority of wind-generated electricity in Illinois is distributed via Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which services Illinois outside of northern Illinois—as opposed to PJM Interconnection, which distributes electricity in the Chicago metropolitan area.[3]

Overview edit

Wind power has been supported by a renewable portfolio standard, passed in 2007, and strengthened in 2009, which requires 10% renewable energy from electric companies by 2010 and 25% by 2025.[4] For 2013, in-state renewable generation was just 5.1% of Illinois' total generation.[5] Additional renewably generated electricity is imported from other states.[6] Illinois uses a large amount of electricity, and the state's mandate was enacted when only a very small percentage of its electricity was renewably generated.

Illinois has the potential for installing up to an estimated 249,882 MW of wind generation capacity at a hub height of 80 meters operating at 30% gross capacity factor.[7][8] That amount is lower with higher capacity factors and is higher with 100 meter hub heights.[8]

The first wind farm in Illinois opened in 2003 and by 2009, it had over 1800 MW installed statewide with thousands of MW more in the planning stages.[9] The largest wind farm in the state is the 300 MW Cayuga Ridge installation, while another seven windfarms each exceeded  MW capacity.[3] The Twin Groves Wind Farm was the largest wind farm east of the Mississippi when completed but has since been surpassed.[10][11] Some smaller installations include a 0.66 MW turbine at the Bureau Valley School District and a 2.5 MW turbine at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, formerly part of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, now part of the University of Illinois.[3] A proposed high voltage DC transmission line would transmit wind generated electrical power to the Chicago area from northwest Iowa.[12]

Power from some wind farms in Illinois is sold to the Tennessee Valley Authority. A 2010 agreement with Iberdrola Renewables provides a potential 300MW future supply from the Streator Cayuga Ridge Wind Farm in Livingston County.[13]

Wind farms edit

 
Illinois has among the highest densities of wind power
 
Electricity Generation Sources in Illinois
Farm Year Installed capacity (MW) County[14] Note
Mendota Hills 2003/2019 51.66/76 Lee Turbines replaced in 2019
Crescent Ridge 2005 54.45 Bureau
Pike County 2005 1.65 Pike
GSG 2007 80 Lee/LaSalle
Camp Grove 2007 150 Marshall/Stark
Twin Groves I-II 2007-2008 396 McLean
AgriWind 2008 8.4 Bureau
Grand Ridge I-IV 2008-2009 210 LaSalle
Providence Heights 2008 72 Bureau
EcoGrove 2009 100.5 Stephenson
Rail Splitter 2009 100.5 Logan/Tazewell
Lee-DeKalb 2009 217.5 Lee/DeKalb
Cayuga Ridge 2009 300 Livingston
Geneseo 2009 3 Henry
Top Crop I-II 2009-2010 300 LaSalle
Streator Cayuga Ridge 2010 150 Livingston
Walnut Ridge 2010 212 Bureau
White Oak 2011 150 McLean
Big Sky Wind 2011 239.4 Bureau/Lee
Pioneer Trail 2011 150 Iroquois/Ford
Settlers Trail 2011 150 Iroquois
Shady Oaks[15] 2012 109.5 Lee
Bishop Hill 2012 200 Henry
Minonk 2012 200 Woodford/Livingston
California Ridge[16] 2012 217.1 Vermilion/Champaign
Bishop Hill I-II 2012 81 Henry
Heartland Community College 2012 1.65 McLean
Pilot Hill 2014 175 Iroquois/Kankakee
Brown County 2014 1.5 Brown
Hoopeston 2015 98 Vermilion
Kelly Creek[17] 2016 184 Kankakee/Ford
Radford Run 2017 306 Macon
Bishop Hill III 2018 132 Henry
HillTopper 2018 185 Logan
Whitney Hill 2019 66 Logan
Bright Stalk 2019 205 McLean
Green River 2019 194 Lee/Whiteside
Cardinal Point 2020 150 McDonough/Warren
Harvest Ridge 2020 200 Douglas
Otter Creek 2020 158 LaSalle
Broadlands 2020 200 Champaign
Sugar Creek 2020 202 Logan
Blooming Grove 2020 261 McLean
Lone Tree 2020 88 Bureau
Lincoln Land 2021 302 Morgan
Glacier Sands 2021 185 Mason [18]
Bennington 2021 93 Marshall
Ford Ridge 2022 120.4 Ford
Sapphire Sky 2023 253.8 McLean

Wind generation edit

Illinois Wind Generation (GWh, Million kWh)
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total % of Production
2003 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 16
2004 0 3 8 10 9 5 3 4 5 9 9 13 78
2005 6 7 10 10 9 5 3 2 5 7 12 65 141
2006 19 18 23 29 21 14 13 10 15 28 28 36 254
2007 28 21 28 51 64 40 26 26 66 106 95 112 663
2008 240 189 201 226 208 160 82 69 93 229 298 342 2,337
2009 252 302 264 306 204 148 97 147 101 259 329 411 2,820
2010 357 242 402 503 392 218 205 196 373 524 609 432 4,453
2011 407 598 567 723 538 423 239 224 402 512 908 672 6,213
2012 880 613 869 782 641 565 320 277 443 771 608 958 7,727
2013 1,185 880 999 1,077 766 594 413 323 511 739 1,209 929 9,625
2014 1,313 849 1,069 1,097 873 621 498 351 458 842 1,285 829 10,085 4.98%
2015 1,004 936 1,000 1,073 890 518 400 444 628 1,167 1,372 1,316 10,748 5.54%
2016 1,268 1,144 1,096 1,026 854 591 400 331 693 960 1,095 1,205 10,663 5.69%
2017 1,125 1,264 1,304 1,289 1,086 941 471 408 519 1,166 1,245 1,450 12,268 6.68%
2018 1,531 1,198 1,284 1,096 859 616 566 571 679 1,172 1,065 1,262 11,899 6.33%
2019 1,471 1,308 1,491 1,623 1,134 1,034 673 562 900 1,293 1,242 1,729 14,460 7.24%
2020 1,364 1,535 1,672 1,657 1,336 1,054 621 543 1,070 1,542 2,159 1,673 16,226 8.56%
2021 1,537 1,643 2,113 1,770 1,553 1,146 807 895 1,388 1,514 2,064 2,257 19,133 9.37%
2022 2,262 2,277 2,325 2,503 2,141 1,407 1,149 1,041 1,271 2,052 2,498 2,137 23,063 12.16%
2023 1,918 2,346 2,529 2,226 1,663 1,286 11,968 15.37%

  Teal background indicates the largest wind generation month for the year.

  Green background indicates the largest wind generation month to date.

Source:[19][20]

Illinois Wind Generation in 2019
Net Generation for Wind, Monthly[21]
Illinois Wind Generation in 2020
Net Generation for Wind, Monthly[22]
Illinois Wind Generation Capacity by Year[23]
Megawatts of Installed Generating Capacity[24][25][26][27]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "WINDExchange: Wind Energy in Illinois". windexchange.energy.gov. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
  2. ^ "Illinois - State Energy Profile Analysis - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)". www.eia.gov. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c U.S. Wind Energy Projects - Illinois Archived 2010-01-05 at the Wayback Machine, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)
  4. ^ "Illinois Incentives/Policies for Renewables & Efficiency". Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. U.S. Dept. of Energy. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  5. ^ "Electric Power Monthly, February 2014". U.S. Energy Information Administration. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  6. ^ "Fix for Illinois renewable energy law faces utility opposition". midwestenergynews.com. Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  7. ^ "Wind Energy Facts: Illinois" (PDF). American Wind Energy Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2013. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
  8. ^ a b "WindExchange:Illinois 80-meter wind map and wind resource potential". U.S. Department of Energy, EERE. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  9. ^ About Wind Power in Illinois Archived 2010-06-07 at the Wayback Machine, Illinois Wind Energy Association
  10. ^ AWEA treats Twin Groves as four installations. Together they exceed the capacity of Cayuga Ridge.
  11. ^ Lookout puts wind farm in perspective Archived 2011-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, Steve Stein, Peoria Journal Star, June 14, 2008
  12. ^ "Rock Island Clean Line files application with FERC" (PDF). Clean Line Energy Partners. November 8, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
  13. ^ "TVA: Energy Purchases from Wind Farms". tva.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2015.
  14. ^ "Illinois Wind Power Maps". windforillinois.org. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  15. ^ Shady Oaks profile Archived 2014-05-11 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ "Our Projects - Invenergy". www.invenergyllc.com. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  17. ^ Kelly Creek Wind Park Commissioned Archived 2016-12-29 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ Glacier Sands Wind Project
  19. ^ EIA (May 21, 2013). "Electric Power Monthly". United States Department of Energy. Archived from the original on June 3, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  20. ^ "Electricity Data Browser". www.eia.gov. Archived from the original on March 23, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  21. ^ "Electricity Data Browser". www.eia.gov. Archived from the original on March 23, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  22. ^ "Electricity Data Browser". www.eia.gov. Archived from the original on March 23, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  23. ^ "Installed Wind Capacity". U.S. Department of Energy. Archived from the original on March 14, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  24. ^ "AWEA 4th quarter 2011 Public Market Report" (PDF). American Wind Energy Association(AWEA). January 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
  25. ^ "AWEA 4th quarter 2018 Public Market Report". American Wind Energy Association(AWEA). January 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  26. ^ WINDExchange: U.S. Installed and Potential Wind Power Capacity and Generation
  27. ^ "Market Report 2021". American Clean Power Association. May 17, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2022.

External links edit