United States Will Lead World for Third Straight Year in Annual Wind Power Installations
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.15.08
photo by Andrea Paraggio
While still a small percentage of overall electric generation, there’s no denying that wind power has been growing consistently in the United States. In 2007, an additional 5,329 megawatts of capacity was added, an amount which was slightly more than a quarter of all new global wind capacity that year. Currently an additional 8 gigawatts of wind capacity is under construction and scheduled to be operational by the end of 2008.
The result: This will be the third straight year that the United States leads the world in annual wind power installations, according to a new study by Emerging Energy Research.
100 (or maybe 150?) Gigawatts by 2020
According to EER this growth means that cumulative wind installations in the United States are “expected to reach at least 100 GW by 2020.” Keep in mind that the US currently has about 19.5 GW of installed capacity (AWEA).
Note: There seems to be uncertainty here. Both Renewable Energy World and Earth2Tech are are reporting that EER says that 150 GW will be hit by 2020, but the summary/order form of the report from EER gives a figure of 100 GW by 2020. Hmm?
image: EER
Not Quite Halfway There to DOE Goal
Either way it’s not bad by any means, but as Earth2Tech points out, still less than half of the amount needed to reach the 20% wind power by 2030 goal that the Department of Energy thinks is possible. However, if 2008-2020 can bring an additional 100-odd gigawatts of wind power, 2021-2030 may be able to make up the rest.
via :: Renewable Energy World, :: Earth2 Tech and :: Emerging Energy Research
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I think we should be giving some thought to dedicating certain wind turbines to important services. Hospitals, schools, and police stations in high-wind areas should get their own dedicated generators. If excess energy is availabe after they've taken their bit, then good enough, but I'd hate the idea of important services having to fight for priority against less important uses on a grid with limited availablity.
At the end of 2009, the state of Texas will have more deployed MW than every (country) in the world except Spain, I think. Everything big in Texas, Right? :) But, Texas has good windy areas and good Net Metering Laws and regulation. AND No State Income Tax!
But you know, what is more exciting than this is the growth of personal wind power. I work for WindEnergy7.com selling and installing small wind turbines for homes, farms, schools. We are getting so many people right now that are taking their own power generation using wind turbines.
The small systems can power a home and cost about as much as a car. Of course, over a few years, the thing pays for itself and then the homeowner has free green energy for the home. It's kind of unbelievable that a consumer can now free themselves from a utility like that, isn't it?
@ rob
You're adding a lot of extra infrastructure to support something like that. It also supposes that the wind turbine would be located at the premise, which may not be the best place to harvest wind. That same wind turbine might produce much more energy and more consistently installed in the wind corridor. Also, hospitals, schools, etc need baseload capacity, which wind cannot provide.
@ WindEnergy7
I'm glad that a lot of people are becoming aware and even purchasing and setting up their own wind turbines. I'm planning to build my own, in fact. However, there are much greater efficiencies with industrial turbines, from both production and maintenance standpoints. Measured in MW, the vast majority have been industrial turbines. Not to mention, residential purchasers still need the grid, since wind doesn't supply baseload. I really can't imagine microgeneration representing more than a tiny percentage of our power generation in 10 or 20 years, can you?
Hi,
A pity that Flanders (Belgium) doesn’t invest in wind mills. As said in this blog the current 123 units are peanuts compared to the 18000 mills in Germany and 1840 in The Netherlands.
As a private person, it’s rather impossible to install a private wind mill. There are a lot of mills suitable for domestic use. Despite the fact that the size and yield of the little ones are perfectly within the limits, requests for a building permit are in general refused.
Eddy