The U.S. wind energy sector is booming, with new data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showing in 2012 the industry became the number one source of new electricity generation capacity, representing an investment of $25 billion.
The DOE and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently released its 2012 Wind Technologies Market Report, detailing surging growth in new wind power installations, and a renewable energy jobs market reaping large rewards from President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to double renewable electricity generation by 2020.
Last year, the USA added 13 gigawatts of new wind energy capacity – making wind the fastest growing source of power in the country. The USA now hosts a cumulative capacity of 60 gigawatts of wind power, enough to provide electricity to 15 million homes.
The knock-on effect of this rapid increase has seen a tripling in domestic production of wind farm components such as turbines, towers, blades and gears from 25 percent in 2006/07, to 72 percent in 2012. According to the DOE, the wind sector employs over 80,000 American workers, including workers at manufacturing facilities up and down the supply chain.
As wind energy generation has expanded across the country, supplying nine states with over 12 percent of their total electricity requirements, so has innovation in design and manufacture developed, so that now the average capacity of a U.S.-made wind turbine has grown 170 percent since 1998. These advancements, combined with falling installation and project capital costs, have lead to a drop in the average price of wind under 2012 power purchase agreements (PPAs) to four cents per kilowatt hour.
Another publication, the 2012 Market Report on Wind Technologies in Distributed Applications, shows a 10-fold increase in the number of turbines directly contributing to decentralised grids or to power remote locations such as farms and off-grid homes. According to the report, in 2012 roughly 9 out of 10 small-scale wind energy systems were supplied by domestic manufacturers.
Strong support for renewable energy at a federal level is key to the ongoing success of America’s wind sector, said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
“The tremendous growth in the U.S. wind industry over the past few years underscores the importance of consistent policy that ensures America remains a leader in clean energy innovation.”
For more information on these two new reports visit http://energy.gov/wind-report
