Wind Powering America is a commitment to dramatically increase the use of wind energy in the United States. This initiative will establish new sources of income for American farmers, Native Americans, and other rural landowners, and meet the growing demand for clean sources of electricity.
Through Wind Powering America, the United States will achieve targeted regional economic development, enhance our power generation options, protect the local environment, and increase our energy and national security.
After reaching 1,000 MW of wind energy in 1985, it took more than a decade for wind to reach the 2,000-MW mark in 1999. Since then, installed capacity has grown to nearly 35,000 MW (as of December 31, 2009). Today, U.S. wind energy installations produce enough electricity on a typical day to power the equivalent of more than 9.7 million homes. The five-year average annual growth rate for the wind industry is now 39%, up from 32% between 2003 and 2008. America's wind power fleet will avoid an estimated 62 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to taking 10.5 million cars off the road, and will conserve approximately 20 billion gallons of water annually, which would otherwise be consumed for steam or cooling in conventional power plants.
Wind Powering America concentrates its efforts in "stuck" markets, i.e., avoids investing resources in markets that are fully commercial and active; develops innovative pilot projects; replicates successes; and develops and disseminates targeted information, analyses, and tools — WPA augments the efforts of DOE's wind research program, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), and other wind related organizations to identify and address gaps in technical information and tools needed for its program areas. Examples include: development and access to simplified spreadsheet tools for initial analyses of wind project economics and economic development impacts, development and distribution of state specific wind maps and small wind application guidebooks, and publication of a brochure that focuses on wind opportunities, case studies, and economics for rural electric coops. Visit our state pages or use the navigation to the left to access each of these resources.
Accurate information about the wind resource and the wind energy potential in each state is required for federal and state policy initiatives that will expand the use of wind energy in the United States. View 80-meter wind maps and wind resource potential tables and charts.
This report analyzes trends in wind power capacity, industry, manufacturing, turbines, installed project costs, project performance, and how wind power prices compare to conventional generation. It also describes trends among wind power developers, project owners, and power purchasers, and discusses financing issues.
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