U.S. Is Now the World’s Wind Power Leader
The U.S. has continued to have high growth rates in its wind industry for the third year in a row at an estimated $18 billion in revenues. With the record growth rates, America’s wind industry is now the largest in the world with a capacity of more than 21,000 Megawatts of energy, passing the prior leader Germany. This was all in the American Wind Energy Association, AWEA, annual report detailing the huge growth numbers and project growth for next year.
That 21,000 megawatts of capacity are expected to generate over 60 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2009, enough to serve over 5.5 million American homes.
Even though this is not a race to who can have the most renewable energy, I like the fact that America has boosted it’s research and development in these areas. Hopefully other countries strive for this recognition and continue to grow their renewable energy industries. One contributing factor to the high growth amid our current economic hardships are the renewable energy tax credits in the $700 billion bailout bill passed a few months ago. I was not fully in support of the bailout bill, but I am really glad these tax credits made their way in. They are already make a huge difference and hopefully continue to help grow our wind, solar and geothermal industries.
