There is plenty of wind out there and plenty of energy to be tapped. It's just like an oil field that doesn't run out. Tom Gray, AWEAWind is one of our nation’s greatest natural resources. Used by pioneers to pull water from underground aquifers, it was the principal energy source that made settlement of the Great Plains possible. In the 21st Century, wind has been harnessed to create electrical energy, powering an increasingly larger and larger percentage of the power grid.
Wind power is the fastest growing source of electricity generation in the world and continues to grow at record rates, more than quadrupling between 1999 and 2005. Global wind markets grew 47 percent to $11.8 billion in 2005, and are expected to reach $48.5 billion in 2015.
Recent advances in wind technology are helping to drive down the cost of wind to a level where it is cost competitive with more traditional sources of energy at close to five cents per kilowatt-hour. It is estimated that by 2010, new wind-driven power plants will generate energy much more cost-effectively than new coal or gas-fired power plants.
More than half of the United States has measurable wind resources that could support the development of utility-scale wind power plants. And with the developing technologies that have made it possible for turbines to get power from lower wind speeds, land that was previously unsuitable for wind turbines offers a new source of wind energy. Lower requisite wind speeds also allow for turbines to be placed closer to the homes and businesses that need to make use of them.
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