What Is Wind Energy?

Distributed wind energy describes wind energy projects that serve on-site energy demand. As such, distributed wind turbines can generate on-site electricity for homes, schools, businesses, and farms. Sometimes distributed wind projects support local electricity networks, which are often called “microgrids.” They can help cut down on electricity use and, in some cases, can provide all the power for homes and other structures that are off the grid. Distributed wind turbines can also work together with other technologies like solar panels, storage, and power converters to provide power.

Distributed wind energy installations are defined by how they are applied (to serve on-site energy demand) rather than by turbine size. However, turbines used for distributed applications are typically smaller than 20 megawatts. The distributed wind energy market includes wind turbines and projects of many sizes, from small wind turbines powering remote telecommunications equipment (which provide less than 1 kilowatt of power) to multimegawatt wind turbines that power campuses or large factories.

Distributed wind turbines can provide all the power used at a location, or they can provide part of the power to offset utility bills. In some instances, extra power produced by a community or residential wind energy project can be sold to utilities companies or other nearby energy users.

Explore the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) 10 things you may not have known about distributed wind energy and the Distributed Wind Energy Resource Hub, which helps anyone interested in harnessing the power of distributed wind energy with a curated directory of basic information, project funding and technical assistance, case studies and success stories, and tools to evaluate your location's potential.

There are many ways that wind can support distributed energy markets. Review case studies and an interactive three-dimensional animation on WETO’s website, which includes wind energy that can offset electricity costs, improve energy independence and resilience, and/or provide on-site power for:

• Isolated and remote communities , like rural Alaska or island villages that are off grid, including homes, businesses, and community buildings
• Residential settings, in individual homes and smaller microgrids, sometimes integrated with other distributed energy technologies, such as solar panels and battery storage
• Public facilities and services, such as water treatment plants
• Agricultural sites, such as farms
• Commercial buildings and electric vehicle charging stations
• Industrial parks
• Mobile, pop-up deployment in military or disaster-relief scenarios.

Agricultural and residential customers made up 59% of all U.S. distributed wind projects in 2022. These applications have great potential, especially if combined with other distributed energy technologies, such as solar photovoltaics and energy storage. In many cases distributed wind can also be used to provide expanded energy resilience or reliability for important energy needs, such as emergency services.

Learn more about just a few places U.S. energy consumers are using distributed wind energy, ranging from a remote village. There are many benefits to community wind energy projects, though they are also subject to regulations and zoning restrictions.

Learn how wind power can provide you with energy, how to install a wind turbine on your land, the details of small community or large community wind power projects, and how community agreements can benefit those living near wind farms.

Utility-scale wind energy projects use highly efficient, state-of-the-art wind turbines that generate cost-competitive electricity at power-plant scales. They can be owned and run by a utility company that then sells the power the plant makes to users, like homeowners, who connect to the electrical grid. 

One of the most mature and widely deployed forms of renewable energy, land-based wind energy refers to electricity generated by wind turbines installed on land by companies. Land-based wind turbines harness the kinetic energy of wind moving over land and convert it into electrical energy, usually in larger power plants run by utility companies that distribute that electricity to Americans through the U.S. grid system using transmission systems. Read 10 things you didn’t know about land-based wind energy.

These projects use large turbines that can have blade rotors measuring more than 75 meters in diameter, which is about the size of an average Ferris wheel. The rotors are installed on towers that can be taller than the Statue of Liberty. 

The power land-based wind turbines generate can range from 100 kilowatts (usually for distributed purposes) to as much as several megawatts (for utility-scale purposes)—and they’re growing in both capacity and physical size. In 2022, turbines grew to just under 140 meters (~460 feet) tall, from ground to blade tip. This can make them more powerful while using less land area, but the industry faces challenges from size limitations, such as construction and transportation of such large components via trucks and trains, operations and maintenance costs, as well as turbine efficiency. Existing wind power plants can also repower to switch out smaller, older turbines for new ones.

The United States boasts abundant land-based, utility-scale wind energy resources. According to a 2022 assessment, the nation has 2.2–15.1 terawatts of land-based resource potential, spanning across all 50 states and U.S. territories, which far exceeds the nation’s electricity needs. Wind energy is now the largest renewable power source in the United States and can be viable source of renewable energy in all 50 states by 2050.

Land-based wind energy already makes up a significant share of the nation’s installed wind energy capacity and has the potential to supply the nation with even more energy in the future. In 2022, land-based wind energy projects, which spread across all regions except the southeast, contributed 10% of the United States’ energy generation, with 12 states using wind to provide over 20% of their in-state power generation.

Land-based wind turbines can also work with other renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels, and energy storage in hybrid plants. In 2022, installed U.S. hybrid plants had the capacity to provide 2.6 gigawatts of wind energy.

Offshore wind turbines are, in general, much bigger than land-based wind turbines, because they are not as constrained by infrastructure around them or transportation limitations as their land-based counterparts. Offshore, wind turbine parts are transported by massive barges and erected using giant ship-mounted cranes. This means that offshore wind turbine blades are now 100 meters long (about 330 feet) which is the distance between goal posts of an American football field, and the tower heights have reached 150 meters (nearly 400 feet) tall, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty!

As offshore wind farms develop along U.S. coastlines, the federal government is also helping to plan and support transmission systems that can bring that energy back onto shore to power American homes.

This includes interarray cables, connecting wind turbines to offshore substations, which gathers power from multiple turbines then sends it through an export cable under the seafloor back to the cable landing or "landfall" on shore. There, the power contributes to an onshore substation and travels through powerlines as electricity into homes and businesses.

Check out interactive graphics on how offshore wind energy transmission works from the U.S. Department of Energy's Grid Deployment Office of offshore wind energy transmission and explore the benefits, such as improving U.S. grid reliability, adding good-paying jobs to the economy, increasing domestic energy generation, and offering local communities tax revenues, workforce development, and other support.

Because of their size and the scale of the installations, utility-scale wind turbines require environmental, utility, governmental, and public coordination and they are regulated in their location, distance from nearby infrastructure (called "setback"), and other health, safety, and environmental aspects.

What Is Community Wind Energy?

The term “community wind energy” describes wind energy projects that have been built for the benefit of local community members. Community members may own these projects directly, through an intermediary (such as a municipal government or rural electric cooperative), or benefit from the project as subscribers, paying a private owner for a share of the project’s output. The term can describe small-scale distributed wind energy projects, in which wind turbines generate power at or near the site or sites where the power is consumed, such as at a school, or larger projects that include several-megawatt-sized wind turbines.

At first glance, some community wind projects may resemble smaller, standard, land-based, utility-scale wind power plants. However, where they differ is in who primarily receives the energy and other benefits generated by the project. Community wind projects deliver electricity to local community facilities or may be shared by many people in the community.

How Are Community Wind Energy Projects Used?

Community wind energy projects have many applications:

• Schools, hospitals, businesses, farms, ranches, or community facilities can use a locally owned wind energy project to supply their electricity.
• Rural, isolated, or islanded electric cooperatives or municipal utilities can develop their own community wind projects to diversify electricity supplies.
• Government, industrial, or commercial facilities can supplement their energy supplies, improve energy resilience, and offset utility costs.
• Local individuals can also form independent power producer groups or limited liability corporations to sell the power the turbines produce to a local electricity supplier.

What Are the Benefits of Community Wind Energy?

Although many distributed wind projects may have similar benefits, community wind energy has many benefits for the community it serves and beyond.

Energy

The electricity generated by wind energy does not pollute the water we drink or the air we breathe, so wind energy means less smog, less acid rain, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Wind energy reduces health care and environmental costs associated with air pollution. Finally, wind energy does not require mining, drilling, or transportation of fuel, meaning it poses few environmental risks to the areas where wind energy projects are located.

The electricity generated by wind energy does not pollute the water we drink or the air we breathe. Wind energy reduces health care and environmental costs associated with air pollution. Finally, wind energy does not require mining, drilling, or transportation of fuel, meaning it poses few environmental risks to the areas where wind energy projects are located.

Local Control

Because many community wind energy projects are locally owned, residents can have more influence over the siting and sizing of projects and ensure that the projects honor local concerns related to issues such as setbacks from homes and businesses, sound levels, and viewshed impacts.

Stable Energy Prices

Wind energy projects do not require fuel to operate, and their overall operating costs are relatively low. This means owners of community wind projects can confidently predict the price that they will pay for energy throughout the lifetime of the project.

In addition, community wind projects produce energy that can be used directly or sold to local utilities at a fixed rate through a power purchase agreement, providing stable long-term energy prices. Finally, in areas where importing fuel results in high electricity costs, community owned wind projects provide locally produced power, which can stabilize or lower energy costs. As communities consider the expanded use of electric vehicles for public services, such as electric school buses, having a more convenient long-term energy option with minimal cost variation will benefit most communities.

Job Creation

Wind energy—whether community or privately owned—often brings a range of new jobs to the area where a wind project is sited. This can include short-term jobs, like those in construction, as well as long-term roles operating and maintaining the wind project.

Wind energy development can also drive an increase in jobs not directly related to the wind project. For example, the construction phase of a large wind farm may bring in workers from out of town, meaning hotels and restaurants need to increase their staff to accommodate the influx of potential patrons.

What Is Residential Wind Energy?

Residential wind energy is generated at the source of consumption. In other words, it is wind energy generated at and connected to the residence it powers. Small wind projects can be as simple as a single wind turbine on private property. These same principles would also apply to small business, such as farms or other agricultural businesses, or even small industries located outside of communities across the nation.

A residential wind energy system can be just one turbine or a group of turbines with each turbine ranging in size from 200 watts—enough to charge a battery for a recreational vehicle—to tens of kilowatts to power larger residences or small farms.

Residential distributed wind energy allows landowners to harness the energy created by wind and use as much as they need to power their home and other buildings on their property. A landowner can connect their distributed wind turbine to the grid, or the energy can stay off the grid in standalone applications.

How Are Residential Wind Energy Projects Used?

Homeowners use residential wind energy, which can offset a homeowner’s electricity costs, to power their homes and sometimes even recreational vehicles and boats.

In some cases, a residential wind energy system is paired with other sources of distributed energy, such as solar panels, energy storage, or fossil fuel generators, in a home-scale microgrid. This type of system can help homeowners meet all their energy needs using power generated on their property.

When the residence is connected to the distribution network, a residential wind energy system can supplement a home’s energy consumption. If the residential distributed energy system provides more electricity than is used, the residence may be “net-zero” although it still uses energy from the grid when there is not enough wind for the wind turbine. If combined with other energy sources as part of a home microgrid, the residence can be self-sustaining and can operate without a grid connection, either permanently, which is known as being “off-grid systems”, or if the grid goes down during a weather event or other emergency situation.

How a wind turbine connects to the local grid is driven largely by local building codes and rules put in place by the local utility, typically driven by state “net-metering” laws.

What Are the Benefits of Residential Wind Energy?

Residential wind can help homeowners:

• Lower their electricity bills
• Allow individuals or businesses to consume more energy than is available from their local utility
• Avoid the high costs of having utility power lines extended to a remote location
• Improve homeowners’ resilience during extended utility outages or support local grid conditions at the end of long distribution feeders.
• Generate on-site power in rural areas.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, approximately 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas. Rural residences are better suited for distributed wind, given greater land availability, lack of local obstructions in the form of tall buildings, and in many parts of the country, stronger winds.