US President Donald Trump hates wind power, and yet the domestic wind industry continues to rack up more clean kilowatts under his nose. There’s plenty more where that came from, to boot. The US already has more than 150 gigawatts of onshore wind in hand, and savvy developers can add to that figure without taking up any more land for new wind farms.
The Repowering Strategy
If you’re thinking repowering is in play, that is correct. Although offshore wind power is a new development, the US began building wind farms all they way back back in the 1980’s. The industry accelerated throughout the early 2000’s until Trump took office again last year. He did slow new wind activity down to a crawl, but the nation’s portfolio of old, outdated wind technology continues to be the gift that keeps on giving.
Many of those turbines are at or near the end of their useful lives. In repowering projects, they are being replaced with new, more efficient turbines while also making use of existing land, access routes, and transmission infrastructure.
In some cases, a repowering project is designed to increase generation capacity from the same land. In others, the goal is to reduce the number of turbines, without necessarily losing overall capacity. Increasing capacity while also reducing the number of turbines is another design strategy (see more repowering background here).
Repowering enthusiasts also point out that renewing or adjusting an existing permit is generally less cumbersome than starting the site approval process from scratch. In particular, existing wind sites have already passed aviation reviews, particularly in regards to the Department of Defense.
Repowering projects are less likely to run against a brick wall of community opposition, too, especially when they have already established a years-long track record of making substantial contributions to the local economy in the form of new tax revenue along with steady lease income for farmers and other property owners.
The Onshore Wind Power Gold Mine
Trump may be asleep at the wheel, but apparently the US Department of Energy is still paying attention to the onshore wind power potential hiding under the bed. As of this writing, the agency’s website continues to feature an article about wind repowering in the US under the title, “Wind Repowering Helps Set the Stage for Energy Addition.” The source for the article is a repowering study led by the agency’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (now the National Laboratory of the Rockies), published in the Journal Nature back in 2020.
NREL concluded that the optimal potential for repowering in the US totals an additional 161 gigawatts, though the key word is “optimal.” The researchers advise that re-developing an existing site is not free from constraints, leading to an overall reduction in capacity in some cases. They cite aesthetics, noise mitigation, and “political bargaining” as the chief factors leading to capacity downscaling.
“The recognition of repowering as a negotiated process between host communities and wind developers will probably be critical to unlock the full potential of wind energy in the future,” the research team emphasizes.
More recently, a team of Stanford University researchers ran the numbers. Their results were published in the journal PNAS (the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) in March. They calculated that 153 gigawatts of onshore wind capacity existed in the US as of 2024, a number that could more than double to 314 gigawatts on the same land.
“The resulting annual onshore wind electricity generation could increase from 453 TWh in 2024 to ~911 TWh for the same weather year after repowering the fleet,” the authors note. At that mark, onshore wind would account for 21% of US generating capacity, up from 10.5%.
Repowering In Action
The Mulqueeney Ranch Wind Repowering Project in California provides one example of the contribution repowering can make to the nation’s wind portfolio, while also replacing fossil fuel power plants with new generation capacity that is demonstrably less hazardous to wildlife.
As originally envisioned in 2019, the Mulqueeney repowering project was designed to install just 36 new turbines and remove hundreds — about 518, to be more precise — of the 1990’s-era turbines densely packed into the site.
As initially proposed, each of the new turbines would range between 2.2 and 4.2 megawatts in capacity, to yield up to 80 megawatts overall. With wildlife conservation as a focus, in 2021 the proposal was downsized to include up to 24 new turbines of the same rating. The number was further reduced to 19 while preserving the overall capacity at 80 megawatts.
The Role Of Long-Term Asset Management
Another project of note is in the planning stages in Iowa, where the turbines in three wind farms totaling 116 megawatts are aging out. The three sites went into operation between 2001 and 2007, making them ripe targets for repowering.
The project is a joint effort between the firms GreenVolt Power and Bedrock Renewables. It illustrates how repowering supports the wind industry’s transition from a one-and-done business model into a recognition that wind sites are permanent assets that maintain their value under a long term management plan, just like any other power plant.
“Investment in repowering not only increases the long‑term value, efficiency and resilience of projects, but it also delivers meaningful benefits to host communities; from sustained landowner income and stable tax revenues, to the continuous generation of sustainable energy that bolsters local economic vitality and contributes to the state’s clean energy goals,” the two partners emphasized in a press statement earlier this year.
Why Does Trump Hate Wind Power So Much?
Keep an eye on the wind-rich Dakotas, where the Basin Electric Power Cooperative is planning to replace a total of 188 turbines at two wind farms. Unlike the California project, the BEPC project will preserve the original turbine towers and foundations. The upgrades include larger blades and new gearboxes alongside other work on the generating equipment and electrical controls.
Preliminary work on one of the wind farms is already under way. Located near Minot, North Dakota, the site was developed in 2009 with 1.5-megawatt turbines. The new turbines will top that by a slight margin, at 1.6 megawatts, increasing output at the site.
The local Planning Commission greenlit the Minot project earlier this month, though the project is on hold until it passes muster with the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force.
BEPC reportedly expects final approval by next spring, but don’t hold your breath. In May, word surfaced that Trump has been delaying routine Pentagon reviews for upwards of 250 onshore wind projects.
Why does Trump hate wind power so much? Who knows! Perhaps it has something to do with a longstanding grudge, rooted in his losing battle over wind turbines in Scotland.
For the record, Trump certainly doesn’t hate other forms of renewable energy. His “American Energy Dominance” policy embraces hydropower, geothermal energy, and biomass, with the biomass angle being of particular interest in recent days. If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the discussion thread.
Photo: Wind power has come a long way in the US since the 1980’s, with thousands of old, outdated turbines that can be replaced with modern 21st century technology (cropped, courtesy of US Department of Energy).
