Wind power installations jump in the U.S.

27-Jan-2010

The amount of wind power installed in America increased 39 percent between 2008 and 2009, a recent report says.

The American Wind Energy Association said that 9,922 megawatts of wind power was put into service last year, increasing total U.S. wind capacity to more than 35,000 megawatts. With 2009's strong results, AWEA added, the average annual growth rate of wind power in the past five years was 39 percent.

"The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009," AWEA chief executive Denise Bode noted.

Still, wind power uptake may be obstructed by political factors. Without a national renewable electricity standard, Bode said, wind installations are unlikely to continue at the pace they've been maintaining.

There is another obstacle to wind power, as well: Current transmission capacity is insufficient to make large-scale wind installations a reality, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The same problem exists in Germany. That country's wind energy association, BWE, said this week that new installations were hamstrung by a lack of grid capacity. Germany may also be insufficiently windy, BWE suggested, saying that windy weather fell 16 percent in 2009.

Germany's wind industry grew 15 percent last year.

Breaking news brought to you by the Oxford Princeton Programme, specialists in power courses. This and other related topics are part of the forthcoming course Overview of the North American Electric Power Industry on 1 April, 2010 in Houston.