Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7.4
Wind resources in the United States. (Department of Energy, 1987)
the current rapid growth of wind energy will continue. Some experts
believe a 20 percent contribution by wind energy is a realistic goal within
a decade.
The United States led the world in new wind turbine installations for
the fourth year in a row in 2008, with a record-shattering 8,358 mega-
watts of wind capacity added, increasing cumulative installed capacity
to 19,549 megawatts—enough to power 6.5 million homes and offset-
ting the carbon dioxide emissions of twelve average-size coal-fi red
plants.
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Texas and Iowa have the most installed capacity. California,
once the location of practically all the wind energy activity in the United
States, is now in third place. Iowa and Minnesota now get approximately
7.5 percent of their electricity from the wind, Colorado 6.1 percent,
South Dakota 6 percent, and fi ve other states at least 3 percent.
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Wind power was the largest new resource added to the U.S. electrical
grid in 2008, ahead of new natural gas plants and far ahead of new
coal-fi red installations. The surge in installations was driven by the
federal production tax credit and by renewable energy mandates in
twenty-fi ve states and the District of Columbia. The Department of
Energy forecasts that installed capacity will increase rapidly between
now and 2020.
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Even the economic downturn of 2008 did not slow the
growth of wind power. Although the U.S. economy hemorrhaged 2.6
million jobs in 2008, the wind industry enjoyed 70 percent job growth
