Dive Brief:
- Wind energy-generated electricity reportedly saved Southwest Power Pool (SPP) customers over $1.2 billion in 2013 from fuel costs, costs associated with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, and water use, according an American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) spokesperson.
- Based on data from SPP, wind power also provides “societal benefits” worth $2.8 billion annually to its 6.2 million customers in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The amount was calculated with a tool designed by the Environmental Protection Agency to measure economic benefits from reducing air pollution.
- In 2013, wind energy-generated electricity saved 3 billion gallons of water in Oklahoma and 2 billion gallons of water in Kansas that would have been used by fossil-fuel burning plants to generate the same amount of electricity, according to a spokesperson for The Wind Coalition.
Dive Insight:
SPP was created in 1941 and its interconnected transmission system continues to allow the region to share generation resources.
SPP Midwestern and Plains states from the Texas Panhandle to Nebraska have the estimated potential to generate between 60,000 megawatts and 90,000 megawatts of wind capacity, more than SPP peak demand.
SPP states have over 9,000 megawatts of nameplate wind capacity currently in service and more than 11,000 megawatts more in development.
The sharing of wind resources from wind-rich states like Oklahoma and Kansas with less windy states like Missouri and Arkansas is allowing the wind industry to achieve economies of scale and overcome curtailment issues.
"It's very clear that new wind energy being added to the Southwest Power Pool is providing very large net benefits for consumers," AWEA Director of Research Michael Goggin told the Associated Press. "That's because the cost of wind has fallen dramatically in recent years."
