US wind generating capacity leaps 45% in 2007

www.environmental-finance.com/
Fri, 18 Jan 08

London, 17 January: The US wind energy sector installed 5,244MW of new capacity last year – investing $9 billion, and accounting for a third of all new power-producing capacity in the country in 2007.

"This is the third consecutive year of record-setting growth, establishing wind energy as one of the largest sources of new electricity supply for the country," said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), which compiled the figures released today. "This remarkable and accelerating growth is driven by strong demand, favourable economics and a period of welcome relief from the on-again, off-again, boom-and-bust cycle of the federal production tax credit [PTC] for wind energy," he added.

There is now 16,818MW of wind energy capacity in the US, up 45% across 34 states, on the end of 2006. American wind farms will generate an estimated 48 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy in 2008, just over 1% of US electricity supply, and powering the equivalent of more than 4.5 million homes. AWEA's initial estimates suggest that 2008 could see similar volumes of new capacity installed, but it warns that the PTC – which provides a tax break per-kWh of power from certain types of renewable energy capacity – is set to expire at the end of this year.

"The US wind industry calls on Congress and the president to quickly extend the PTC – the only existing US incentive for wind energy – in order to sustain this remarkable growth along with the manufacturing jobs, fresh economic opportunities, and reduction of global warming pollution that it provides," said Swisher. In terms of wind turbine sales, GE Energy continued to lead, accounting for 45% of new capacity installed. FPL Energy remained top of the list of wind project developers, with 956MW of new development in 2007 alone.