While offshore wind grabs the headlines, its land-based cousin quietly continues to expand its own market share.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Land-Based Wind Market Report, the land-based wind power industry has been growing in many ways.

The report was published in August 2023 by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office. It summarizes data on key trends in the U.S. wind power sector, focusing on land-based wind turbines over 100 kilowatts in size.

The report makes several significant findings. For example, it notes that land-based wind generation comprises a growing share of electricity in the United States, with a total deployment of 8.5 gigawatts (GW) last year. That accounted for more than 10% of the nation’s electricity supply overall, and significantly more in some areas. For example, the Southwest Power Pool saw 38% of its power generation come from wind in 2022.

The report also notes that performance is improving. Much of this comes from the increasing size of wind power installations. Longer blades are being installed on larger turbines, which are being mounted on taller towers.

All this is not a coincidence. The DOE notes that turbine towers are becoming taller to capture more energy, since winds generally increase as altitudes increase and there is less interference from ground-based objects, like mountains, trees and buildings. Furthermore, larger rotor diameters allow wind turbines to sweep more area, capture more wind and produce more electricity, even in areas with relatively less wind.

Illustrating this point, the Berkeley Lab report notes that the number of turbine rotors that were 115 m in diameter or larger has grown dramatically over the past 10 years. Only 1% of turbines employed rotors of this size in 2012. In contrast, almost all turbines (98% of new installations) featured such rotors in 2022.

At the same time, wind turbines have increased in maximum power rating, or capacity, since the early 2000s. According to the DOE, the average capacity of newly installed U.S. wind turbines in 2022 was 3.2 megawatts (MW), up 7% since 2021 and 350% since 1998–1999.

Other factors are also contributing to continued growth in land-based wind. The DOE notes that the grid-system value of wind surged in 2022 across many wholesale power markets. The value of wind in wholesale power markets is affected by the location of wind plants, their hourly output profiles and how those characteristics correlate with real-time electricity prices and capacity markets. The market value of wind generally increased in 2022, driven higher by high natural gas and wholesale power prices. The highest market value averages were in New England and California, where they were above $75/MWh.

With these factors working in its favor, the land-based wind power industry is poised to continue its growth trajectory. Incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year will also contribute to that growth. The DOE notes that the average wind deployment forecast for 2026 among expert analysts is 18 GW. That is a significant increase from the 2026 forecast of 11 GW 2026 given a year ago, before the Inflation Reduction Act was passed.