Wind energy continues growth in 2008
by April 13, 2009 10:26 am 58 views
Texas had the most wind capacity and the largest wind farms installed in 2008, with 24 states seeing new wind turbine and turbine component manufacturing facilities opened in 2008.
The American Wind Energy Association annual report also shows Indiana as the state with the fastest wind energy growth on a percentage basis.
“The wind energy industry today generates not only clean energy for our economy, but also hope and opportunity for American workers and businesses,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “Whether it is building or maintaining a wind project, or producing wind turbine components, you’ll find people employed in wind power in nearly all 50 states today.”
In company rankings, NextEra Energy Resources (formerly FPL Energy) continues to lead in wind farm ownership; GE Energy remained the wind turbine maker with the largest amount of new capacity installed, and Xcel Energy again leads investor-owned utilities in wind power.
Wind turbine and turbine component manufacturers announced, added or expanded more than 55 facilities in 24 states in 2008.
The top five states in terms of capacity installed are, Texas, with 7,118 MW; Iowa, with 2,791 MW; California, with 2,517 MW; Minnesota , with 1,754 MW; and Washington, with 1,447 MW.
Other features of the AWEA report include:
• Iowa, with 2,791 MW installed, surpassed California (2,517 MW) for the No. 2 position in wind power generating capacity.
• Oregon moved into the 1,000-MW club, which now counts seven states, including Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Washington and Colorado.
• Indiana ranked as the state with the fastest growth rate, expanding installations from zero to 131 MW, followed by Michigan (48%), Utah (21%), New Hampshire (17%) and Wisconsin (6%).
• Two states – Minnesota and Iowa – now get more than 7% of their power needs from wind. Minnesota ranks first in this list (7.48%), followed closely by Iowa (7.1%). The rest of the top five are Colorado, North Dakota, and New Mexico.
• Approximately 85,000 people are employed in the wind industry today—a 70% increase from 50,000 a year ago—and hold jobs in areas as varied as turbine component manufacturing, construction and installation of wind turbines, wind turbine operations and maintenance, legal and marketing services, and more.
• The wind power generating fleet of over 25,300 MW in place as of Dec. 31,2008 will generate an estimated 73 billion kWh in 2009, enough to serve the equivalent of close to 7 million average U.S. homes.