U.S. Installed Wind Energy Capacity Tops 20,000 Megawatt Mark

The U.S. wind industry has past the 20,000-megawatt (MW) installed capacity milestone, achieving in two years what had previously taken more than two decades. Wind now provides 20,152 MW of electricity generating capacity in the U.S., producing enough electricity to serve 5.3 million American homes.

“Wind energy installations are well ahead of the curve for contributing 20% of the U.S. electric power supply by 2030 as envisioned by the U.S. Department of Energy,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher on Wednesday.

But the gorilla in the closet is the expiration of the federal production tax credit (PTC). The PTC is currently set to expire at the end of 2008, but is being tossed around as a political football in Washington D.C. as Congress is gridlocked in a battle over establishing a national energy policy.

The U.S. is now the world leader in wind electricity generation. While Germany has more generating capacity installed (about 23,000 MW), the U.S. is producing more electricity from wind because of its much stronger winds. AWEA expects over 7,500 MW of new wind capacity to be added in 2008, expanding America’s wind energy fleet by 45% and bringing total U.S. capacity to some 24,300 MW.

Photo: © Stephenmeese | Dreamstime.com

Tags: american wind energy association, awea, production tax credit, wind energy, wind industry, wind power

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This post was written by: Timothy B. Hurst

Tim Hurst is the founder/editor of ecopolitology and executive editor of LiveOAK Media. Tim mostly covers energy and environmental politics, renewable energy and green business; but seems to write more about music festivals in the summer for some reason. When not reading, writing, thinking, or talking about environmental politics to anyone who will listen, Tim likes to ski, hike with his aging labrador, and toil in his Colorado vegetable garden. He's on twitter at @ecopolitologist.

8 Responses to “U.S. Installed Wind Energy Capacity Tops 20,000 Megawatt Mark”

web says:

September 8, 2008 at 8:21 am

Good news on the U.S. alternative energy adoption front- more wind generated power growth in the last two years than the previous twenty.

Reply
Slingy says:

September 12, 2008 at 12:17 pm

You cannot compare last two years to the last 20 because there practically was no development going on for the last 20 years. Also US cannot be compared to countries like Germany. US has a huge chunk of a continent. It’s a huge country. If you have to compare, compare the US with Europe as a whole. Let’s see at the numbers there

Reply
Manysounds says:

September 12, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Excellent! Keep up the good work everyone!

Reply
Olmec Sinclair says:

April 2, 2009 at 8:02 pm

Now, if the population was lower and personal consumption less things would be starting to look up….

Reply
JBM says:

May 4, 2009 at 12:24 am

That’s a great sentiment Olmec, perhaps you can start by shedding your life in a peaceful gesture towards the creation of a utopia.

Or was it other “populations” that should be trimmed?

Reply
Timothy B. Hurst says:

July 18, 2009 at 7:53 pm

JBM- I think what Olmec is saying is that wind power is great, but if it only goes to support growing energy needs and increased consumption, then it is only a stop-gap measure. We need long-term solutions to our growing energy demand. And Olmec’s not unreasonable suggestion is seems perfectly valid.

To suggest that he is saying current lives should be shed is not a fair characterization.

Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

U.S. Wind Power Growth, Visualized [map] : CleanTechnica says:

July 19, 2009 at 7:59 pm

[...] late 2008, just a few months after the United States’ installed wind energy capacity topped 20,000 MW, the U.S. became the largest wind power producer in the world. And in 2008, thanks to a (mostly) [...]

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U.S. Wind Power Growth, Visualized [map] « CleanTechnologies.ca says:

July 20, 2009 at 7:45 am

[...] change. In late 2008, just a few months after the United States’ installed wind energy capacity topped 20,000 MW, the U.S. became the largest wind power producer in the world. And in 2008, thanks to a (mostly) [...]

Reply