Kansas Reaches Milestone In Growing Wind Capacity

The Sunflower State’s wind power continues to grow.

As The Wichita Eagle reports, according to a first-quarter report from American Wind Energy Association, Kansas will reach 5,000 megawatts of wind power generation capacity this year, behind only four other states – Texas, Oklahoma, California and Iowa.

This week Kansas will dedicate two new wind farms, one in Kingman County and one in Pratt County, reports The Wichita Eagle.

Together, the two farms will generate 400 megawatts of electricity—enough to power 100,000 homes. That’s enough clean energy to power five cities the size of Hays, Kansas.

Most of the power will fall under the purview of Westar Energy, which also recently completed a large wind farm in Ford County.

The wind that blows across the Great Plains makes it prime real estate for wind turbines.

But as Colorado Public Radio reports, some are concerned that wind energy could threaten the reliability of the nation’s electric grid, while others believe if properly planned for, there’s no limit on how much renewable energy the grid can one day handle.

The solar capacity of the state of Colorado increased by 70 percent last year, reports The Denver Post.

That may seem like an impressive leap forward—and it is—but Colorado’s solar ranking among states actually fell last year. That’s because other states increased their capacity even more than the Centennial State.