US tops wind technology list

The 2009 report, entitled Wind Technologies Market Report, was released by the US Department of Energy and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Wind power additions in the US set a new record in 2009, with 10GW of new capacity installed, representing an investment of $21bn (£13.2bn).

‘At this pace, wind power is on a path to becoming a significant contributor to the US power mix,’ said co-author Ryan Wiser, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD). ‘Wind power projects accounted for 39 per cent of all new electricity generating capacity added in the US in 2009, and wind energy is now able to deliver 2.5 per cent of the nation’s electricity supply.’

Distribution

The report says that growth is distributed across much of the US. Texas led with 2,292MW of new wind power capacity, but 28 states saw new wind power plants constructed within their borders in 2009.

Wind power is now said to provide more than 10 per cent of in-state electricity generation in four states: Iowa (20 per cent), South Dakota (13 per cent), North Dakota (12 per cent) and Minnesota (11 per cent).