How many wind turbines are there?

That's a big question. It's one I've wondered about while driving through Southwestern Minnesota looking out the window at what appears like rows of windmills that go on forever.

Turbines in Minnesota.

Density map of wind turbines in Minnesota.

Created in Tableau.

Southern Minnesota's Buffalo Ridge holds the greatest concentration of turbines. In this cropped image from Southern Minnesota, each dot represents a turbine. I've added city names in Tableau to improve clarity.

So, how many wind turbines are there?

2,732 as of November, 2023. Lincoln County holds the greatest concentration at 643. Jackson County is second at 349 followed by Mower County at 341. All three of those counties can be found in the state's Southwest corner.

Data from:

U.S. Wind Turbine Database

Hoen, B.D., Diffendorfer, J.E., Rand, J.T., Kramer, L.A., Garrity, C.P., and Hunt, H.E., 2018, United States Wind Turbine Database v6.1 (November 28, 2023): U.S. Geological Survey, American Clean Power Association, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7TX3DN0.