Wind power in Colorado

Status

The graph at left shows the growth in wind energy generation for Colorado since 2005. Wind power accounted for 14.2% of total electricity generated in Colorado during 2015.

Colorado has the potential to install 387,220 MW of wind power generation according to a 2010 U.S. DOE study.

Colorado voters approved Amendment 37 which required the state's largest utilities to obtain 3 percent of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2007, and 10 percent by 2015. More recently, in 2010, the state approved a renewable portfolio standard that requires 30% of the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020.

Notable projects

Rated at 574.8 MW, the Peetz Table Wind Energy Center is the largest wind farm in the state and provides enough electricity to power nearly 120,000 homes. It consists of 282 GE Wind Energy & 66 Siemens Wind turbines. The site has 4 farms: Peetz Table, Logan, & Northern Colorado 1 & 2.

The Cedar Creek Wind Farm was built in 2007 and has 300 MW of generation capacity from 274 wind turbines. Cedar Creek II was built in 2011 and has 250 MW of generation capacity from 60 Nordex and 63 GE wind turbines.

Spring Canyon Wind Energy Center and Spring Canyon Expansion in northeast Colorado have a combined capacity rating of over 120 MW spread over 75 wind turbines. These 2 neighboring sites were built by Chicago-based clean energy company Invenergy LLC in 2006 and 2014 respectively. Invenergy continues operation of these sites which provide power to the Platte River Power Authority including the cities of Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont in Colorado.

Wind generation

Sources:EIA Electric Power Monthly, EIA Electricity Data Browser