U.S. Wind Capacity Waiting in Interconnection Queues (GW)

## What this measures

The capacity, in gigawatts, of onshore and offshore wind projects actively seeking to connect to the U.S. transmission grid at the end of each year from 2014, across all seven ISOs/RTOs and about 50 other utilities.

## Why it matters

The queue shows what developers want to build next. Its fuel mix has swung from gas in the mid-2010s to solar and storage, and back toward gas since 2024 as data center demand and reliability concerns raised the value of power that runs on demand.

## How to read it

Higher means more of this technology proposed. Read it as intent, not supply: most queued capacity is withdrawn, and LBNL finds only about 13% of the capacity that entered queues from 2000 to 2020 reached operation by the end of 2025. Compare with the U.S. total (power.queue.lbnl.active_gw.us) and with planned capacity due within two years (energy.capacity_planned_12m_gw.us.*), which is much closer to construction.

## What it does not say

It is requested nameplate capacity, not energy. Queue rules changed over the period (FERC Order 2023 and cluster studies push speculative projects out faster), which moves the total without any change in interest.

## How it's built

LBNL's capacity of active requests by generator type for all regions, by year. Onshore and offshore wind are added together (offshore is broken out from 2020). Dated to December 31.

## Source

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and GridTracker, "Queued Up: 2026 Edition" data file (emp.lbl.gov/queues), tab "09. Active Cap. Region+Type". Licensed CC BY 4.0: "You may use, share, or adapt the dataset as long as you attribute it to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and GridTracker." Updated once a year when LBNL publishes a new edition.