Enough wind turbine capacity is now installed in the USA and Puerto Rico to supply more than 19 million typical American homes with clean, cheap electricity.
According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the 70GW installed capacity mark was achieved in November.
“This American wind power success story just gets better. There’s now enough wind power installed to meet the equivalent of total electricity demand in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the AWEA.
“Wind energy is the biggest, fastest and cheapest way we can cut carbon pollution here in the U.S., and as wind power grows, so will savings for American families and businesses all across the country.”
Like the solar industry, the USA’s wind energy sector is in particularly good spirits at the moment after an extension of the ITC, which is a 30 percent tax credit for eligible wind, solar and energy storage projects. The Production Tax Credit (PTC) was also extended.
There are now 50,000 operating wind turbines at more than 980 utility-scale wind farms across 40 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. The cost of wind-generated electricity in the USA has fallen by two-thirds in six years.
More than 13,250 megawatts (MW) of wind capacity is currently under construction, with another 4,100 MW of projects in advanced stages of development.
The U.S. has still only developed a tiny proportion of its wind energy potential. Land-based wind energy resources alone stack up to more than 10,000,000 megawatts – enough to power the entire country 10 times over. With offshore wind energy potential added in, wind power could generate enough electricity to power the country 13 times over.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s recent Wind Vision report, wind energy is set to double from nearly five percent of U.S. electricity currently to 10 percent by 2020, and then double again to 20 percent by 2030. If that target is realised, 380,000 jobs may be created in the process.
AWEA is the national trade association of the U.S. wind energy industry, with 1,000 member companies.
