9,922 MW of Wind Energy Capacity Additions in U.S. in 2009.
Net additions in Wind Power sector in the year which has just gone by, has registered 39% increase over the year 2008. The additions are indeed record breaking but a closer analysis of the state of wind power manufacturing sector out there reveals a different saga.
The top 5 U.S. states for wind power are:
- Texas – 9,410 megawatts
- Iowa – 3,670 megawatts
- California – 2,794 megawatts
- Washington – 1,980 megawatts
- Minnesota – 1,809 megawatts
In addition to US, Denmark, Germany, Spain, China and India are some of there other nations who are doing a lot for development of wind power through wind turbines. The main issue with the wind energy is the design of turbines. There are many manufacturers who have been getting lots of orders but still wind energy constitutes only 1.5% of electricity produced throughout the world.
The AWEA warns that U.S. wind manufacturing is weakening and that the future is uncertain. The result was net job losses in the manufacturing sector, which were compounded by low orders and high inventory. Looking forward, the critical Recovery Act manufacturing incentives that were announced only at the start of this year will also need to be supplemented with the hard targets of a national Renewable Electricity Standard.
Today wind energy is pretty expensive when we compare it with energy from fossil fuels. But here we are not factoring in the costs associated with measures related to pollution mitigation. When we do so, we can safely say the difference between Wind Energy and Non- Renewable energy would not be quite high.
Handsome increase in capacity addition which US has achieved in Wind energy in 2009 over 2008 may not get repeated in 2010 but surely with right long term plans and incentives, there can be decent additions even in 2010.
Image courtesy Flickr.
May also like to read: Wind Energy Potential in India
Wind power is a good source of electricity but it also takes up lots of space just like solar power plants.”.~
wind power is just as good if not better than solar power. wind power also generates more power per unit area compared to solar**;