US wind orders hit 2.8 GW in Q2 before tax credit cutoff

U.S. developers ordered 2.8 GW of wind turbines in the second quarter of 2026, racing to start construction before a July 4 deadline that preserves federal tax credits, Wood Mackenzie reported Monday.

The deadline comes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed last year. It moved up the dates wind and solar projects must meet to keep eligibility for the 45Y clean energy production tax credit and the 48E clean energy investment tax credit. Projects that commenced construction before July 4, 2026, have until Dec. 31, 2030, to be placed in service. Projects that missed that gate must be operating by Dec. 31, 2027, to qualify.

For allocators, the two dates sort the U.S. wind pipeline into separate risk buckets. Projects that missed the July gate must be in service by Dec. 31, 2027, which leaves little more than a year of construction and commissioning. That pushes schedule and turbine delivery to the front of diligence ahead of wind resource. Projects that cleared the gate have until 2030, and their credits rest on the commence-construction test rather than on completion.

Installations ran well ahead of orders in the quarter. The U.S. added about 5 GW of onshore capacity in the second quarter, most of it from the 3.65 GW SunZia project in New Mexico, which the report called the country's largest such project to date.

Wood Mackenzie kept its view that the U.S. wind industry will add 39 GW of onshore new-build capacity by 2030. More than half of the 2026–2028 project pipeline is already operating or under construction, the report said.

"Policy is the variable with the greatest impact on wind installations," Wood Mackenzie analyst Tyler Gifford said.

Offshore is the weaker half of the outlook. Wood Mackenzie counted 5 GW delivering within the next two years and said unfavorable policy limits new development — Trump's executive order pausing new offshore lease sales in federal waters, administration deals to buy back leases previously auctioned, and continuing court efforts to block projects under construction.

Next year, the American Society of Civil Engineers is expected to publish guidelines requiring turbines in tornado-prone areas to meet certain design requirements, which Wood Mackenzie said will raise project costs.