Wind share of United States electricity keeps climbing in 2026
Wind share of United States electricity is forecast to rise to 11.37% in 2026, up from 10.86% in 2025, according to the Short Term Energy Outlook, a monthly forecast published by the Energy Information Administration, the government agency that tracks and predicts the nation energy supply. The forecast comes from the agency own September 2026 report, released September 9, 2026. Wind generation is expected to grow from 464.1 billion kilowatt hours in 2025 to 496.4 billion kilowatt hours in 2026, a rise of 6.96%, more than 3 times the 2.16% growth rate forecast for all United States electricity generation combined.
2025 is actual generation. 2026 and 2027 are forecast, all 3 years from the same September 2026 government table.
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| 2025 | 464.1 |
| 2026 | 496.4 |
| 2027 | 522.7 |
A rounded summary that hides a rising share
The Short Term Energy Outlook own summary table rounds both 2025 and 2026 to a flat 11%, and rounds 2027 to 12%, making wind share of United States electricity look flat for a year when it is not. Reading the underlying detailed table instead of the rounded summary shows the share actually rising every single year, 10.86% in 2025, 11.37% in 2026 and 11.77% in 2027, a MAOWCE calculation from the agency own detailed figures. Wind generation growth is also slowing even as its share keeps rising, forecast at 6.96% from 2025 to 2026 and then 5.30% from 2026 to 2027.
Each figure is a MAOWCE calculation, wind generation divided by total electric power sector generation, both from the same government table. The agency own rounded summary table calls 2025 and 2026 both a flat 11%.
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| 2025 | 10.86 |
| 2026 | 11.37 |
| 2027 | 11.77 |
Where the wind growth is happening
The Southwest Power Pool, the grid operator covering much of the central Great Plains, is forecast to generate more wind electricity than any other United States grid region in 2026, 123.8 billion kilowatt hours. The grid region covering most of Texas follows at 122.7 billion kilowatt hours, and the region covering the Upper Midwest generates 104.8 billion kilowatt hours. Those 3 regions together produce more than 70% of all the wind electricity the government forecasts for the whole country in 2026, a MAOWCE calculation.
These are the 3 highest forecast wind generating grid regions for 2026 among every region the government table tracks.
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| Southwest Power Pool grid region | 123.8 |
| Texas grid region | 122.7 |
| Upper Midwest grid region | 104.8 |
The industry own scale behind the forecast
The wind industry own trade group counts nearly 166 gigawatts of wind capacity now installed across almost 75,000 turbines nationwide, and says wind already supplies more than a quarter of the electricity generated in 9 states, a claim also stated independently by a trade press count of the same fact. Nearly 24 gigawatts of new land based wind capacity was still in development as of the end of the second quarter of 2026, representing more than 48 billion dollars of capital investment, according to the trade group. Wind already stands as the largest source of renewable electricity in the country and the fourth largest source of electricity generation capacity of any kind, according to the same trade group.