Exploring the Impact of Near-Term Innovations on the Technical Potential of Land-Based Wind Energy

O&M, wake steering, and climbing cranes. Our aim is to quantify the cost reductions and changes in performance from these innovations in relative terms while holding other modeling assumptions fixed (e.g., differences between regional energy markets and land costs). This approach enables us to examine the regional cost reductions and explore where and by how much these innovations reduce LCOE. Geographically, this study aims to evaluate the potential for wind energy across CONUS, with a specific focus on areas that have seen low levels of deployment (e.g., parts of the South, Southeast, and Intermountain West). This study finds that near-term innovations in land-based wind technology result in lower LCOE values relative to the baseline technology in nearly every location in CONUS, with larger LCOE reductions in areas with wind resource lower than the current fleetwide average (Wiser et al. 2021). This expansion provides an opportunity for land-based wind to contribute more to the renewable energy deployment and climate mitigation targets of the United States.

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