US wind energy industry installs over 2,800MW in first quarter of 2009

29 April 2009

The US wind energy industry installed over 2,800MW of new generating capacity in the first quarter of 2009, with new projects completed in 15 states and powering the equivalent of 816,000 homes, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced in its first quarter market report.

AWEA CEO Denise Bode said ‘These brand new wind projects shine a ray of hope on our economy today, creating good jobs and powering homes with a clean, inexhaustible source of energy.

‘But the nation still lacks the long-term signal that is needed to build up renewable energy on large scale. The time is now for a national renewable electricity standard (RES), a policy that over 80 per cent of Americans favor and for which they voted: President Obama’s campaign position of generating 25 per cent of our electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025 will help revitalize our economy and protect consumers when they need it the most: when the price of the fuels used for electricity generation goes up.’

The new wind power projects add up to 2,836MW, according to initial AWEA estimates. The total wind power generating capacity in operation in the US is now 28,206MW, enough to serve over 8 million homes.

In state news, Kansas and New York now have over 1,000MW of wind power generating capacity, joining Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon and Colorado, as US states with wind capacity in the gigawatts.

In Texas, the portion of the large Roscoe project was completed, bringing the project up to 584.5MW. The next 197MW section of the project is slated to be completed soon, which will take it to the top of the list of the nation’s largest operating wind power projects, according to AWEA.

AWEA is the national trade association of America’s wind industry, with more than 2,000 member companies.

Copyright © 2009 newnet

Tags: wind

This story was published on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under knowledge. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “US wind energy industry installs over 2,800MW in first quarter of 2009”

1. John Lewis Mealer says:

   30 April 2009 at 12:42 am

   I hate to think of how upset the big government, global climate change denizens will be when this wind energy plan hits home and they need to pay for the power lines.

   The MEALER (MealerAMC) automobile provides power when the vehicle is parked. Enough power to run a mig welder in the gargae and power the lights, electric water heated and hot tub….

   Commercial is done… I just hate to see so much hype and dreaming when the real costs are hidden from the public.

   JL Mealer
   http://betterconstructed.com

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