Z Cherry Blog

Renewable Wind Energy And The USA

February 28th, 2009

Despite notable achievements from wind power in Europe, in the USA Renewable Wind Energy was always seen as a minor effort. However over the last 2 years electricity production from wind power has increased by 200%. In 2007 it’s growth was only beaten by natural gas, and late last year the USA became the worlds largest producer of wind powered electricity.

With the new incentives coming from the latest energy bill wind energy production could increase another 50% this year alone to something close to 30000MW, capable of powering over 5million homes. The AWEA (American Wind Energy Association) has a goal of supplying 20% of the USA’s energy needs from wind over the next 10 years.

 

The USA has the potential to produce around 600 gigawatts of electricity from wind alone, which is currently around 60 percent of the countries energy consumption. Wind energy is also at a competitive level with natural gas with production costs around 10c per KW hour (although this does include and assume the approx 2c tax reduction). Lets hope the US continues to develop this fantastic technology to it’s full potential.

 

 

Entry Filed under: Technology