North Dakota and wind energy production

Summary: Energy plays a major role in North Dakota’s economy. The state accounted for 8.9 percent of all crude oil production in the United States in 2022 and is the number-one state for potential wind energy production.

North Dakota is a large state located in the upper Midwest of the United States, bordering Canada to the north. It was the second-least populated state in the country as of 2025, with 804,089 residents, and one of few states experiencing declines in population. The state is bordered by Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south, and Montana to the west. The state is formed by significant hills in the Great Plains region of the west, the Badlands to the north, the Missouri Plateau in the central part of the state, and the relatively flat Red River Valley in the eastern part of the state.

Production and Consumption

North Dakota has sizable fossil fuel reserves, with substantial surface mines in the central region of the state and crude oil and natural gas reserves in the western part. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, in 2024 North Dakota’s total energy production was 4,114 trillion British thermal units (Btu), thanks in part to its substantial crude oil and wind energy production. The state is a major exporter of electricity.

North Dakota has a steadily growing economy, on par with the national average, and ranks among the upper half of all states for per capita income. The state economy is highly energy-intensive, and industry accounts for close to half of the state’s total energy consumption. Despite having a relatively low population, North Dakota ranks as one of the highest energy consumers per capita in the nation (fourth overall) because of high energy demand in the winter. This rate is growing at more than double the average national rates.

The state regulates its market for electricity, and although the primary energy source is coal, North Dakota has already developed substantial wind energy production through the Clean Cities Coalition for the Red River Valley. North Dakota has the highest potential wind energy capacity in the United States.

Petroleum

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in 2025, North Dakota ranked third in the country, behind Texas and New Mexico, for both crude oil reserves and production. In 2024, North Dakota's crude oil production was nearly 1.2 million barrels per day.

The state has numerous major pipelines for crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), in addition to many interstate pipelines for natural gas. With Canada at its northern border, the eastern side of the state pipes crude oil from Canada to markets in the Midwest for oil refining. Some crude oil extracted from the Williston Basin, located in the western half of the state, is refined near the capital, Bismarck, in addition to a small amount coming from Canada. Transportation fuel produced there is then distributed to the other northern Great Plains states and metropolitan areas of Minnesota.

North Dakota also has significant capacity for the production of ethanol, with several plants and a series of state-level policies and incentives for renewable energy in place. However, the state is a relatively low consumer of ethanol blended gasoline. North Dakota is one of few U.S. states to lack air quality regulations for the statewide use of nonconventional, blended motor gasoline.

Natural Gas

In 2024, about 2 percent of the natural gas production in the United States came from North Dakota, the majority of which was piped on through Minnesota and South Dakota to be consumed in other midwestern markets. North Dakota is the largest source of synthetic natural gas, thanks to the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, which produced about 130 to 150 million cubic feet of gas from coal annually. The majority of the state’s natural gas supply was imported from western Canada and Montana, with relatively low overall consumption, most of which is accounted for by industry. While nearly 40 percent of households rely primarily on natural gas to heat their homes, the remaining households use electricity as their primary energy source.

Coal, Electricity, and Renewables

Overall electricity production and consumption are relatively low, with most of the state’s electricity supply coming from coal-fired plants (54 percent) and wind energy (35 percent). Several large surface coal mines are located in central North Dakota. These supply the majority of coal used in the state’s coal-fueled power plants, providing nearly all of North Dakota’s electricity production. This coal production is quite significant; imported coal from other states is relatively low.

North Dakota was one of the nation’s leading wind energy producers; at the beginning of 2025, it had 4,500 megawatts of installed wind power generating capacity. Wind was the second-largest generator of electric power in the state. The state's largest wind farm, located near Williston, has about 300 megawatts of generating capacity and has been in operation since 2021. North Dakota also had six ethanol plants, which produced 3.5 percent of all ethanol in the United States in 2023.

Bibliography

"About Us." Dakota Gasification Company, www.dakotagas.com/about-us/index. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

"Energy and Natural Resources." North Dakota Department of Commerce, 2024, www.commerce.nd.gov/economic-development-finance/energy-and-natural-resources. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

"North Dakota." US Energy Information Administration, 18 Sept. 2025, www.eia.gov/state/?sid=ND. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

"North Dakota." World Population Review, 2025, worldpopulationreview.com/states/north-dakota. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

North Dakota State Water Commission. A Review of Alternate Energy Sources. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1974.