Wind power 39% of new energy installed here in 2009

(Photo of wind turbines in Kansas from Flickr and photographer Brent Danley)

Wind energy provided 39% of the new power in the U.S. in 2009, but still represents only a tiny part of total energy – 1.8%.

Wind advocates are asking Congress for a renewable energy standard (RES) that will speed up the use of new forms of energy like wind and solar.

So says the U.S. Wind Energy Association Annual Market Report, released last week.

Some highlights:

• 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity were installed in 2009, a record year. That’s enough to power 2.4 million homes.
• Texas leads with the most wind power, followed by Iowa, California, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Colorado and North Dakota.
• Iowa leads with percent of power generated by wind, at 14%.
• About 85,000 people are employed in the wind industry here.
• 36 states have utility-scale wind projects.
• 10 new manufacturing facilities came on line to build wind equipment, 20 were planned, and 9 expanded. There are now 200 manufacturing plants on line.
• Wind provides about half the renewable energy in the U.S., followed by biomass and geothermal. Solar only generates 1%.
• Offshore wind power is coming of age, with 7 projects planned.
• Use of wind power is conserving about 20 billion gallons of water annually, which would be needed for cooling in conventional power plants.

The utility using the most wind power is Xcel Energy. The largest wind power owner is NextEra Energy Resources. And GE is the top turbine supplier in the U.S., followed by Vestas (Denmark), Siemens (Germany) and Mitsubishi (Japan).

More highlights and charts can be downloaded from the AWEA Web site. If you want more than highlights, a full report will cost you $550 at the AWEA store. I didn’t think so. Then you’ll have to make do with highlights.

See an interactive map of wind projects by state. You can click on your state for more detail.

(Sources: Greenwire, American Wind Energy Association)