■ Business and Industry trends

Energy

Wind power fallsinto regional patterns

Wind plant performance—how much electricity a wind plant generates compared with its maximum possible generation— dependsalmostentirelyonthe availability of wind resources, whichvarydependingonboth the time of year and the geographic region, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Theperformanceofapower plant is often characterized as a percentage of the maximum possible generation in a given time period, a metric known as capacity factor. Nationally, between January 2016 and August 2022, wind plant capacity factors peaked in March and April and were at their lowest in July and August.

Unlike fossil fuel-fired power plants, such as coal or natural gas plants, wind plants don’t incur any fuel costs to generate electricity, so the electricity they produce is almost entirely determined by available wind resources. Wind plant performance is influenced not just by wind speed, but also by wind direction, wind constancy, and turbine height.

Because of geographic differences in wind resource potential, wind generation varies across regions. EIA grouped states into regional groups that have similar wind capacity factor patterns. The Lower Plains region of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico has the largest share of U.S. wind capacity, at 44% as of August 2022. The Upper Plains

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