These benefits include reducing the cost of producing electricity, protecting consumers from increases in the price of other fuels, and reducing public health costs by eliminating harmful pollution.

By protecting against electricity and fuel price increases and reducing the need to operate the most expensive power plants, wind energy provides Texas consumers with $1.2 billion per year in gross benefits.

These benefits are in addition to the thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic development wind energy brings to Texas.

This report explores the benefits of wind power both on Texas consumers, and the Texas community – plus a look at wind’s benefits on an hourly basis.

By protecting against electricity and fuel price increases and reducing the need to operate the most expensive power plants, wind energy provides the region’s consumers with $1.2 billion per year in gross benefits.

These benefits are in addition to the thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic development wind energy brings to the SPP region.

This report outlines societal and consumer benefits of wind energy on the SPP, as well as provides an hourly look at wind benefits.

Wind energy is a widely available, affordable, and reliable electric generation method for significantly reducing air pollution. As detailed in this whitepaper, wind energy plays a significant role in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) in nearly every state. And wind energy can play an even greater role in reducing emissions reductions going forward, with evidence from more than a dozen utility and independent grid operator studies confirming that wind can reliably provide an even larger share of our electricity needs, in turn producing even larger emissions reductions.

Key findings include:

• The 167.7 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of wind energy produced in the U.S. in 2013 reduced CO2 emissions by 126.8 million tons, the equivalent of reducing power sector emissions by more than 5 percent, or taking 20 million cars off the road.
• The top 10 states by volume of carbon reductions from wind energy are: Texas, Illinois, California, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Wyoming.
• States achieving a reduction in carbon emissions of 10 percent or more from wind energy alone include California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington State, with Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Wyoming coming in just under 10%.
• One MWh of wind energy avoids .75 tons, or 1,500 pounds, of carbon dioxide emissions on average. A typical 2 MW wind turbine avoids around 4,000-4,500 tons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of more than 700 cars.

This report details how wind energy improves electric reliability and protects consumers from energy price spikes, particularly when the electric grid is stressed, explaining key consumer benefits of wind energy:

1. Wind reduces the cost of producing electricity
2. Wind energy protects consumers by reducing the impact of electricity price spikes
3. Wind energy reduces pollution
4. Wind energy hedges against fuel price volatility
5. Fixed-price wind energy becomes an even better deal as other fuels increase in price over time
6. Wind reduces consumer natural gas prices

Some of the most common questions about wind energy focus on how it can be reliably integrated into the power system. This report answers the most frequently asked questions, with lessons learned from grid operators’ experiences reliably integrating large amounts of wind.

Whitepaper topics:

1. How much wind energy is on the power system now?
2. How do grid operators accommodate such large amounts of wind energy?
3. How much does it cost integrate wind?
4. How much more wind energy can we reliably integrate?
5. Don’t grid operators need to add backup to integrate wind?
6. What happens wen the wind doesn’t blow?
7. Don’t we need baseload power?
8. hat about the reliability services provided by conventional generation?
9. What has been Europe’s experience with renewable energy?
10. What is needed to reliably accommodate higher levels of wind?
11. Isn’t energy storage necessary to integrate wind?
12. Why is some wind power curtailed? How does time of production affect the value of wind energy?
13. How does the renewable energy Production Tax Credit affect electricity markets and reliability?
14. What is wind’s net impact on emissions?
15. Can wind reliably reach the level of output EPA assumed in its Clean Power Plan?

Concise answers are provided in the executive summary, with citations and supporting analysis included in the full report.

The American wind industry is a leading creator of jobs and economic development across all 50 states. This report details how the wind industry has invested more than $143 billion in the United States over the last decade, and is poised for future growth. In 2016, the U.S. wind industry broke the 100,000 job marker for the first time, reaching 102,500 industry jobs in all 50 states. Navigant Consulting expects wind-related employment to reach 248,000 jobs by 2020 when including economic activity induced by the wind industry. Looking forward, the industry will drive $85 billion in economic activity through 2020.

In this report

• In 2016, the U.S. wind industry broke the 100,000 job marker for the first time, reaching 102,500 industry jobs in all 50 states.
• Navigant Consulting expects wind-related employment to reach 248,000 jobs by 2020 when including economic activity induced by the wind industry.
• Jobs from the U.S. wind industry benefit all 50 states, ranging from construction to manufacturing to project operation.
• Over the last 10 years, the wind industry has invested $143 billion in U.S. wind projects.
• Looking forward, the industry will drive $85 billion in economic activity through 2020, according to Navigant Consulting.
• As the U.S. wind industry continues to grow, Navigant expects land lease payments to local landowners to grow from $245 million annually in 2016 to over $350 million by 2020, with nearly all of the payments flowing to rural America.
• Navigant forecasts that new projects built over the next four years will provide a cumulative $8 billion in property, income, and sales tax payments.

This report answers the most frequently asked questions about how grid operators are able to reliably integrate large amounts of renewable energy. Concise answers are provided in the executive summary, with citations and supporting analysis included in the full report.

Topics covered:

1. How much wind energy are grid operators integrating now?
2. How much more renewable energy can we reliably integrate?
3. Don’t we need baseload?
4. What happens when the wind doesn’t blow?
5. Why are coal and nuclear plants facing economic challenges?
6. Can renewables provide the reliability services provided by conventional generation?
7. What about the variability of renewable energy?
8. How much does it cost to integrate renewable energy?
9. Don’t grid operators need to add backup to integrate wind?
10. What steps help accommodate higher levels of renewable energy?
11. Isn’t energy storage necessary to integrate wind?
12. Why is some wind power curtailed? How does time of production affect the value of wind energy?
13. What has been Europe’s experience with renewable energy?
14. What is wind’s net impact on emissions?