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US becomes top producer of wind power

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-03 09:18

LOS ANGELES -- The United States has become the world's leading wind power producer and is expected to see rapid growth in places like Texas, the Great Plains and California, according to figures released on Saturday.

The U.S. wind industry now tops Germany in terms of how much energy is being produced from wind, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said.

Germany still has more installed capacity -- 22,000 megawatts vs. 17,000 in the United States at the end of 2007. But the average wind speed is stronger in the United States, which means more energy is being generated, the group said.

This year, Germany will add only about 1,600 megawatts of wind energy, while the United States will add more than 6,000 megawatts, said Randy Swisher, executive director of the association.

"The numbers themselves are not what matters," Swisher said. "What matters is that the wind industry around the world recognizes that the U.S. is the largest market."

That's important because many of the world's leading wind companies are not U.S. companies, and they will need to move manufacturing jobs here as the U.S. wind industry grows, Swisher said. His group says 4,000 wind-related manufacturing jobs have been added in the United States since 2007.

Currently, wind provides about one percent of U.S. electricity.

The Californian Pacific Gas & Electric has been using wind power for decades, and has been aggressive in adding new contracts for wind energy in the past four years as it strives to meet California's renewable energy goal of 20 percent by 2010.

The company has 1,164 megawatts of wind energy in operation or under contract, said spokeswoman Jennifer Zerwer.

The cost of wind power is almost comparable to fossil fuels such as coal, at between 4.5 and 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour, according to FPL Energy, builder of the country's largest wind farm in Horse Hollow, Texas. But building a wind farm costs more than a fossil-fuel plant -- from 1.5 million to 2 million dollars per megawatt of capacity vs. 800,000 dollars for a natural-gas plant. Once constructed, though, wind plants have no fuel costs, compared with coal and natural gas plants.

The industry says that 250 to 300 average U.S. homes are served by 1 megawatt of wind energy.