DOUGLAS - In spite of recent plans to erect more turbines in Wyoming, wind power development here is lagging behind other states and is well below potential.

Industry experts say the disparity between production and potential is largely a case of supply and demand. States with high production are generally using wind energy near the source, and have the population base to create demand. The states with the greatest potential are often far from high-demand markets, and costly transmission infrastructure can be lacking.

Wyoming ranks seventh in the nation for wind electrical generation potential but is 15th in production, according to 2007 figures released this week by the American Wind Energy Association.

Texas leads the group's state-by-state evaluation, ranking first in production and second in potential. Other top-five wind-power-producing states are California, Minnesota, Iowa and Washington.

Within the top 10 producers, only two also rank in the top 10 for potential. Texas, the leading producer, is second in potential. Third in production, Minnesota is ninth in potential.

Most of the states with the greatest potential, such as Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, have smaller population bases and are spread over a larger geographical area. Access to significant markets is limited. States that lead production are those with high-use markets near the resource, such as in Texas and California, and those that have required that a certain percentage of all electricity production come from renewable resources, such as Washington and Oregon.

"Every state with wind potential is struggling to get it to the states with the need," said Ed Werner, executive director of the Wyoming Wind Working Group. "Not a lot of states with high wind actually have high demand."

That makes transmission critical.

"Until you have the transportation medium, you're not going to have much production," he said. "You can produce all the power you want, but it's got to go somewhere."

Mark Northam, director of the University of Wyoming's School of Energy Resources, agreed that transmission impedes the state's ability to decrease the gap between potential and production.

"There are companies that would invest more in wind energy if there were more capacity to get electricity out of the state," Northam said.

While the wind resource is "almost universal" within Wyoming, opportunities to use the electricity generated locally are few. The best wind resources - particularly those in southeast Wyoming - are far from markets and from transmission grids, Northam said.

States with high potential but little production could have significant opportunities in the future to meet demand. For example, although California is second in wind power production, the state is generating 36 percent of its potential. Likewise, Washington is producing 31 percent of potential. Compare that to Wyoming, which is generating only .34 percent of its wind potential.

"Once you see the big power lines, you're going to see Wyoming shooting up that list," Werner said. "The demand is out there, and we have plenty of capacity."

The American Wind Energy Association also summarized new capacity added in 2007. Texas increased its production capacity by 1,618 megawatts. Colorado was second in new capacity, adding 776 megawatts. Wind projects under construction in Texas total 13, with at least six adding more than 100 megawatts each. Wyoming has one project under construction, PacifiCorp's' Mountain Wind I, with 60.9 megawatts of capacity. The same company has announced plans for three more wind projects in the state.

While transmission in Wyoming is being debated by government and industry, Northam is confident new lines will be built. In the meantime, a December gift from BP Inc. to develop a wind energy resource center at the University of Wyoming could investigate solutions to other industry concerns, he said.

The wind center, a collaborative effort between the School of Energy Resources and the College of Engineering, will focus on laboratory research and modeling to improve wind turbine efficiency. At the same time, staff and students will explore the potential of new materials to decrease turbine costs. In the future, the center could research ways to store wind energy for release into transmission grids during peak hours, making wind an even more valuable resource.