US distributed wind capacity ‘lowest in a decade’

The installed capacity for distributed wind turbines in the US has fallen. That’s according to a report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) which stated installations of mid-sized and small […]

The installed capacity for distributed wind turbines in the US has fallen.

That’s according to a report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) which stated installations of mid-sized and small turbines last year were the lowest in a decade.

Distributed wind turbine installations are smaller units compared to electric utility wind facilities – below 1MW, according to the EIA.

Although some large-scale turbines are used in distributed generation applications, they are more often used at wind farms for wholesale power generation, which is sent through transmission lines to distant customers.

Most of the distributed wind turbines were installed on institutional sites such as schools, universities and electric co-operatives last year.

Government installations on municipal or military facilities made up more than one quarter of the installed capacity in 2014.

Other sectors such as industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential were relatively small in terms of capacity but larger in terms of number of installations, the EIA added.

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