surprising facts about wind farms

wind power plants, or wind farms as they are sometimes called, are clusters of wind machines used to produce electricity. a wind farm usually has dozens of wind machines scattered over a large area. the world's largest wind farm, the horse hollow wind energy center in west texas, has 421 wind turbines that generate enough electricity to power 230,000 homes per year. that’s right, texas has the largest wind farm in the world folks!

in 2005, wind machines in the united states generated a total of 17.8 billion KWH per year of electricity, enough to serve more than 1.6 million households. this is enough electricity to power a city the size of chicago, but it is only a small fraction of the nation's total electricity production, about 0.4 percent. the amount of electricity generated from wind has been growing fast in recent years, tripling since 1998.

the states with the most wind production are california, texas, iowa, minnesota, & oklahoma.

the united states ranks third in the world in wind power capacity, behind germany & spain & before india. denmark ranks number five in the world in wind power capacity, but generates 20 percent of its electricity from wind.