Environmental Engineering Reference
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h is kind of occurrence is rare but not unheard of, and the expla-
nation typically blends several factors. h e most obvious culprit this
time, though, is the wind. Over the previous i ve years, Texas has been
installing massive wind turbines at a record pace. By 2011, the state
is home to nearly ten gigawat s of wind capacity, more than triple its
amount half a decade before. h at i gure is greater than the total power-
producing potential—not just wind, but also coal, natural gas, nuclear,
and everything else—of sixteen other states.
5
Texas oi cials have taken
to boasting that if their state were a separate country, it would be the
sixth biggest wind energy producer in the world.
6
h e distinction, though, comes and goes from day to day, depend-
ing on the wind. On June 8, soon at er most Midland residents begin
returning home and turning up their air conditioners, the wind picks
up. Wind speeds reach close to thirty miles an hour, a highly unusual
occurrence for this time of year.
7
To the east and south, the massive
blades of thousands of wind turbines churn at a soaring pace. h e
owners of the wind farms have already paid up front to build the giant
towers. Now, with the wind driving, they are producing more renew-
able power than anyone can use—and they are generating it essentially
for free.
Clean energy has become a big business. Investments in renewable
energy and energy ei ciency in the United States blasted through the
i t y-billion-dollar barrier in 2011—nearly as much as the oil and gas
industry spent on exploration and production that year.
8
Many advo-
cates and investors long aspired to such heights for alternative fuels,
but few of them would have actually predicted this powerful growth
in U.S. clean energy a decade ago. Sales of biofuels and ei cient cars
and trucks have been a big part of that story, but renewable energy
has been a massive element too.
In December 2000, the U.S. Department of Energy published its
annual projections for the coming decade.
9
Renewable energy capacity,
excluding conventional hydroelectric power, stood at a hair below ten
gigawat s at the time. (Hydropower—energy derived from water—has
lit le potential for growth in the United States and can obscure statis-
tics for other renewable energy sources. It's excluded from renewable
energy totals in this topic unless stated otherwise.) Wind and solar,
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