Fast Facts about California Wind Energy

Wind energy projects totaling at least 5,787 megawatts (MW) of capacity are operating in California today,¹ providing enough electricity to power about 2.3 million California households.² 

In 2020, California wind projects generated 13,703 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity – 7.2% of all power generated within California.³ In 2020, out-of-state wind projects generated 16,635 GWh of electricity for California, representing 20% of total power imports.³ Combined, wind projects supplied 11% of California’s total system power,³ more than enough to power all homes in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles Counties combined.²

Wind energy accounted for 27% of California’s renewable energy production for the RPS as of 2019.⁴ (See figure below.)

Generating wind power creates no emissions and uses virtually no water.

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Sources

1. Data compiled by CalWEA from the U.S. Wind Turbine Database.  Commercial and Industrial figure from Foundation Windpower. See https://eerscmap.usgs.gov/uswtdb/ (accessed on March 3, 2019) and https://foundationwindpower.com/projects.html (accessed on December 7, 2021).  Note that the U.S. Wind Turbine Database does not include capacity data for some pre-1990 wind projects, which could add a few hundred megawatts. Also note that the California Energy Commission reports 5,952 MW of California wind capacity (see footnote 3).
2. Calculated by CalWEA based on California Energy Commission and EIA data.  (See https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/electric-generation-capacity-and-energy and https://www.eia.gov/electricity/sales_revenue_price/
3. California Energy Commission, Energy Almanac, Total System Electric Generation (2020).  (See https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2020-total-system-electric-generation.)
4. CEC, Tracking Progress - Renewable Energy, Rev. Feb. 2020.