Sowing The Wind

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) this month reported that federal stimulus spending under the federal Recovery Act has helped turn what was expected to be a 50% decline in growth in the wind power sector into a 39% increase over the course of 2009, particularly in the latter half of the year. As a result of Recovery Act incentives, the U.S. wind sector has added about 10,000 Megawatts (MW) of additional capacity bringing the total to over 35,000 MW nationally. This represents 38 new wind power facilities being brought online, announced, or expanded. Amazingly, nearly 4,000 MW of this 10,000 MW growth in the wind sector occurred during the last quarter of 2009. While this increase only helps wind power turbines close in on accounting for about two percent of the nation’s power supply, this is up from almost nothing a just a few years ago. Since 2002, the nation’s supply of wind-generated energy has jumped sevenfold.

Although growth during the last year was phenomenal for construction, operations, and management jobs in the wind power sector, the manufacturing sector did not see as much gain. In part, this was a result of already-high inventories that must be depleted before demand for their wind power products will increase and stabilize. However, the AWEA also blames the lack of a long-term energy policy and market signals for the decline in total investment in the wind manufacturing sector compared to 2008. Over the course of 2009, one-third fewer manufacturing plants came online or were announced or expanded as a result.

By far, the largest increase in wind power came in the state of Texas, which was already the nation’s wind-power leader with 7118 MW at the beginning of the year. However, during 2009, the state added another 2292 MW of wind capacity, for a total of 9410 MW for Texas alone, which by itself accounts for nearly 2/7 of all U.S. wind sector capacity. At the end of 2009, Texas was followed by Iowa, with 3670 MW of wind power capacity, and California, with 2,794 MW of capacity. Overall, 36 states now have at least some utility-scale wind installations, and 14 states have developed over 1000 MW of capacity thus far. Florida is one of the 14 remaining states, primarily concentrated in the southeastern U.S., that have yet to develop any wind power installations or capacity, despite the recent availability of substantial federal investment monies and increased attention to the issue.

The AWEA projects that America’s wind power fleet will result in positive environmental impacts for both the nation’s air and water. Wind power is projected to avoid about 62 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually, which is the equivalent of taking 10.5 million cars off the road. In addition, wind power is expected to save another 20 billion gallons of water annually that would be otherwise used for steam or cooling conventional power plants.

Jeremey Dobbins, Legal Intern