Wind Capacity Blows Away Records

Wind energy had a breakout year in 2007, according to an annual survey by the American Wind Energy Association.

Producers invested $9 billion to install a record 5,244 megawatts of electrical generating capacity in the United States last year, boosting the country's total wind capacity by 45 percent to 16,818 MW. Wind accounted for 30 percent of all new generating capacity in 2007. In the fourth quarter alone, wind producers added 2,930 MW, more than the entire amount of capacity added during all of 2006.

Installed wind capacity now accounts for nearly 1.6 percent of the total U.S. nameplate generator capacity of 1,076 gigawatts at the end of 2006, the most recent data available from the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. Of course, wind turbines don't operate at peak capacity all the time. Yet the association expects wind to generate 48 billion kilowatthours in 2008,just over 1 percent of all U.S. electricity and enough to supply 4.5 million homes.

The United States could have installed even more capacity last year, but it was limited by turbine capacity.

The American Wind Energy Association expects 2008 installations to equal those in 2007. The association says that wind turbine production is sold out for the remainder of 2008, even though 14 new wind-related manufacturing plants opened, expanded, or were announced in 2007.

Nor is the wind boom limited to the United States. According to another year-end report, this one from the Global Wind Energy Council, the world's wind energy capacity grew 27 percent to more than 94 gigawatts by the end of 2007.

The United States' 5.2 gigawatts accounted for about one-quarter of the world's 20 gigawatts of new capacity. This was followed by Spain (3.5 gigawatts) and China (3.4 gigawatts). China's wind capacity rose 134 percent in 2007 to 6 gigawatts, and more than 40 Chinese companies now make wind generation equipment. India installed about 1.8 gigawatts of new wind capacity, bringing its total to 8 gigawatts.

Europe, which installed 75 percent of the world's new wind capacity in 2004, accounted for less than half in 2007. European capacity grew 17 percent last year, to more than 57 gigawatts, and the continent now accounts for 61 percent of total world capacity. Germany remains the largest wind producer, but the United States could overtake it by the end of 2009 if it continues to add wind capacity at last year's rate

According to the Global Wind Energy Council, wind energy reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 122 million tons in 2007, roughly equivalent to 20 large coal-fired power stations.

ALAN S. BROWN

Copyright American Society of Mechanical Engineers Mar 2008
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