Procter & Gamble, Owens Corning, Dow Chemical, Walmart, Hewlett Packard, Equinix, General Motors, Google, and Philips All Purchased Texas Wind Last Year
Austin, Texas – Texas attracted 49 percent of the total U.S. market for non-utility wind power purchases in 2015, as Fortune 500 companies behind household brands, like Tide and Downy, high-tech companies, universities, and major Texas cities all invested in low-cost wind power, according to newly released data from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). These purchases totaled 998 megawatts (MW), a little less than one-third of the total 3,615 MW of wind capacity installed in the state last year.
“Texas has world-class wind resource, and we are seeing many companies attracted to the low-cost, fixed-rate pricing of wind power,” said Tristan Grimbert, CEO and President, EDF Renewable Energy. “Procter and Gamble’s wind purchase from our Tyler Bluff project in Cooke County, along with Salesforce and Google’s recent agreements for wind energy in the region, demonstrate the growing trend that we are seeing in the wind industry.
The Texas purchases are part of a larger, nationwide trend, as major brands and other emerging non-utility customers signed 52 percent, or about two gigawatts, of the total U.S. wind power capacity contracted through power purchase agreements (PPA) in 2015.
Texas is one of the fastest growing markets for wind power, with some of the best wind resources in the nation. Wind projects attracted $6.2 billion in new investment to the state in 2015, and wind now powers over 10 percent of the state’s electricity demand.
Corporate and other non-utility buyers are the most rapidly growing customer class for wind energy, but demand remains strong among traditional utility buyers for many of the same reasons. Austin Energy became the top public utility in 2015 for wind power owned or purchased, with over 1,144 MW of wind power capacity, primarily located in Texas.
The cost of wind has declined 66 percent in the last six years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and wind power has become one of the lowest cost sources of energy in certain regions of the country, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
This new data is part of AWEA’s 2015 U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report, released today near Vestas Wind Systems’ Brighton Nacelle manufacturing facility outside of Denver.
