14 DAY TRIAL // Recent data shared with the public by grid operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas says that, in the year 2013, this state in the United States came very close to reaching a wind energy milestone.
More precisely, it would appear that, of the overall electricity that Texas produced throughout the course of the year, 9.9% came from harvesting wind power.
Back in 2008, just 4.9% of the state's electricity output was provided by wind turbines up and running across its territory, Eco Watch says. This means that, in just five years, this state managed to double its wind power capacity.
“Texas has added coal – and natural gas-fired capacity since 2011. However, the largest share of capacity growth has been from wind generators, mostly located in western Texas,” the Energy Information Agency explains in a statement.
“Texas leads the nation in wind power generation and was the first state to reach 10,000 megawatts of wind power generating capacity,” the Agency goes on to detail.
Besides, the state ranked second after California when the number of utility-scale turbines was taken into consideration. Specifically, Texas is now home to 7,690 turbines.
Interestingly enough, the Energy Information Agency also stresses the fact that, of the 10 largest wind farms currently up and running in the United States, 6 are located in Texas.
The same Electric Reliability Council of Texas report says that, in 2013, Texas did not just come very close to having 10% of electricity output produced by systems that harvest wind power.
Thus, Texas' electricity consumption increased by roughly 2.1% in this year when compared to a 2012 baseline, the same source tells us.
Earlier this month, the state got significant media attention after it was announced that a group of researchers with the University of Texas were working on developing really small windmills that they said could one day be fitted to gadgets and gizmos and used to power them.