AUG 15

A while back we reported (with some skepticism) a report coming out of China that said they would be producing over 100 gigawatts of wind by 2020, a 1,500% increase.

Little did I know that the United States was, at the same time, on track to actually beat that! A report from Emerging Energy Research, a cleantech consulting firm, points out that the U.S. is now the world's fastest growing market for wind power. Last year 5 gigawatts of wind power were installed, and 2008 will break the record again with 8 new gigawatts under construction. The U.S. will shortly be the world's largest producer of wind energy, surpassing Germany's 22 gigawatts.

If the rate of growth continues, and ideal wind energy areas are exploited, the report says we could hit 150 gigawatts of wind power by 2020! For those of you wondering how much power that is...the average coal plant produces about 800 megawatts of power. So this is enough to displace about 180 coal plants. That's a sizeable hunk of America's power generation!

Of course, a few obstacles could stand in the way. First, if the investment tax credit isn't renewed, the economics of wind power will change significantly. Second, right now there simply aren't enough manufacturing plants building wind turbines. GE already has already sold about $12 B of turbines that they have not yet produced. And in some areas the permitting process is greatly slowing the rate at which the plants come online.

Via CleanTech Media and Emergy Energy Research

Comments (16)

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Wind is exciting
written by The Food Monster, August 16, 2008

It shouldn't be a competition between nations but a world competition to have the world's energy be renewable.
I am assuming the power is produced per year...

-The Food Monster
http://thefoodmonsterblog.blogspot.com

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written by Gillian, August 16, 2008

A little friendly competition is good - especially if it's for things that are for the "greater good."

I'm wondering if this projection has taken into account the flawed permitting systems at all and taken into account the time to either pass new legislation or if it's based on plant proposals and projects already in queue for a permit [or if they've just put it in the "obstacle" column, as you have done, and they're just going to wait and see]. Permitting seems to be the most... pertinent hold up right now, even with the tax credit and production being problems, they seem to be behind just... a little less than 612 years. And if the tax credit doesn't get renewed, I think I'm going to start to lose hope that the U.S. will ever become independent from petroleum.
:]

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great scott!
written by docbrown, August 16, 2008

1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!

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What are we waiting for?
written by Tom, August 16, 2008

I'm wondering why the current congress doesn't put together legislation extending the investment tax credit for wind and solar energy systems. Solar and wind energy firms are suffering while congress plays political games. We don't need to wait for the elections to know that this is the right thing to do. We know we need to dramatically ramp up investment in clean energy to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, and to reduce our dependency on unfriendly foreign nations. We need to stop importing $700 billion worth of crude oil each year, and we need to do it ASAP! Get off your butts congress! No excuses Pelosi and Reid. Just do it.

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written by diamondcutter, August 16, 2008

whacky windmills batman, do you suppose t-boone is behind this. he says he can do it. why not let him give it a go..

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written by zz, August 16, 2008

to The Food Monster -- it is not per year or hour, its instantaneous production -- a 100 MW plant will produce 100 MHW per hour.

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written by frodrick, August 16, 2008

Perfect for sending 10 Deloreans back in time.

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written by Free Xbox 360 Elite, August 16, 2008

That's great. Hopefully, though, by 2020 our power consumption won't quadruple making this moot.

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Solar ,Wind , and Nuclear take too long.
written by Jim, August 17, 2008

5% of unusable farmaland planted in industrial hemp could supply our transport needs. Thats 1000 gals per acre in 6 months. Using just 60 mil of the 900 mil of unusable farmland. Thats 600mil gals in 6 months.
learn about ethanol here
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Review:Alcohol_can_be_a_Gas

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Solar ,Wind , and Nuclear take too long.
written by Jim, August 17, 2008

Sorry no math major here . Thats 6bil gals in 6months.
20 mil acres =30bil gals in 6 months = Saudia Arabia

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written by Bob, August 17, 2008

If turning this into a competition is what works, then you have to be all for it.

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written by Bob Wallace, August 17, 2008

Food Monster/ZZ

While a turbine will generate it's "name plate" amount of electricity when the wind is up and stiff, that happens roughly 35% of the time in the average good installation site.

If one wanted 1 gig of wind power then they would need to install three 1 gig turbine farms. (1 gig x 3 farms x 0.35 output.)

Install them some distance away from each other and you would start to get 1 gig pumped into the grid at all times. Enough turbines spread far enough apart and wind gets quite reliable.

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written by Anders, August 18, 2008

Surprised nobody has pointed this out, but 1 MW of wind produces energy at about 30% capacity factor, meaning that 150 GW of wind would produce about as much energy as 45 GW of coal plant. It wouldn't supplant or replace 45 GW of coal plant, either, unless energy storage were developed, and since energy storage involves some losses, that would reduce the energy supplied.

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Wind is superior to ALL other current po
written by Josh, August 24, 2008

Photovoltaic? NTY! These cells are only 25% efficient at capturing their energy source, photons. Wind works better, typically, on cloudy days and the windiest areas of the US just so happen to be the exact same areas where we pump all that black goo out of the ground. I recently, 4 months ago, installed a 10 Kw turbine on my .5 acre property in western Washington state and have been able to sell back 37$/ month, on average, worth of electricity back to our PUD. The unit and battery storage cost me about 8k total and will completely pay for itself in 5 years and 2 months at my current estimates. The upfront cost hurdle is the thing we need to get over. I realize most homes can't afford this initial cost, but through government incentives and tax deductions we can minimize this cost. If local government starts to dedicate the same lands they do for high-tension towers to wind turbines we could be green inside 10 years. It's the pacs and lobbys you have to conquer first!!! We have a 1740 sq ft home with myself, my wife, and our daughter in our home and we use energy saving lighting and energy star rated appliances in our home, if that helps anyone gauge their needs a bit better. I am telling you, wind is the way of the future...period!

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written by james, February 05, 2009

we have 100% ultra clean power and we are looking for investors of five hundred million dollars , we have a multi gigawatt clean energy station that uses no fuel and has no pollution . problem finding investors

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written by club penguin, May 18, 2009

We know we need to dramatically ramp up investment in clean energy to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, and to reduce our dependency on unfriendly foreign nations. We need to stop importing $700 billion worth of crude oil each year, and we need to do it ASAP...

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