US Wind Market Reaches New Heights

August 15, 2008 | 5 Comments

Following three years of consistent growth, the U.S. wind market is set for a record-breaking surge with cumulative installed wind capacity to surpass 150 gigawatts (GW) by 2020, according to a recent market study from Emerging Energy Research.

With 5,329 megawatts (MW) of new wind capacity installed in 2007, the U.S. wind power market was responsible for installing more than 27% of newly added global wind capacity, securing the nation's position as the largest wind growth market by annual installations for the third straight year. 2008 could set another record for annual installations in the U.S., as more than 8 GW of wind projects are currently under construction and scheduled to be operational by year's end, according to EER.

"Wind is becoming increasingly competitive with conventional fossil fuel power generation options such as natural gas and coal. Given the substantial volatility of fossil fuel capital and operating costs in the past several years, wind is now one of the least-cost power generation options available to US utilities seeking new capacity," said EER Research Director Joshua Magee.

More than half of U.S. states have enacted Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) to date, creating a market for up to 295 terawatt-hours (TWh) of renewable energy supply by 2020. In addition, the U.S. federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) remains crucial to the wind project revenue stream, with looming uncertainty regarding the incentive's current expiration at the end of 2008, EER said.

Texas continues to serve as the hub of U.S. wind project development activity, with more than 45 GW of wind projects under development in the state. However, future growth in top U.S. wind regions such as the Southwest, Midwest, West and Pacific Northwest hinges on the completion of numerous proposed transmission projects, according to EER. "Major transmission expansion investments on both the intra- and inter-state levels will be crucial to sustaining long-term build-out of the US market," Magee said.

To download more information on the report from EER, click here.

5 Comments

Ron Peterson
August 20, 2008

I calculate the cost of generating electricity using natural gas as $0.078 / kwh using natural gas priced at $0.80 / therm and 35% efficiency. (excluding costs of turbine and generator).

Yuval Ezer
August 20, 2008

Last time I checked the cost of wind energy after production tax credit of $0.01/kwh is approx. $0.052/kwh but it's vary with wind speed, blades size, etc

william hughes
August 20, 2008

To the Author
You mention that wind is becoming competitive with other energy sources. Could you give us the price per unit (kwh) that wind turbines are achieving now in the USA.
What a great thing that Americans are just getting on with it in spite of the central government. It is probably the best solution anyway. If the central government was providing all sorts of incentives, it might even cost you more with all the compliance costs involved and everyone would be waiting until they got their incentive before moving. Good on Americans.

Gary Tulie
August 20, 2008

Hi Ravi - The Turbo design you talk of are highly unlikely to have significant advantages over the current 3 bladed turbines, which come fairly close to capturing as much wind as is theoretically possible from the wind passing through the area they sweep. Using 3000 blades would surely add significantly to the cost of the turbine, and would cause each blade to interfere with the aerodynamic efficiency of the next.

As for using a new and unproven technology for 10 X 200MW, that would be madness. If you wish to try a new technology, I would suggest a single turbine as proof of principle.

May I suggest the Magenn flying wind turbine (Rotating dirigible) as a reasonable alternative to test, as it has the advantage over ground based turbines of being up in the higher wind speeds. 10 kW models will be available next year with larger turbines to follow.

Ravi Saini
August 16, 2008

We are on the lookout for the new technology turbo design wind mills that uses 3000 blades in comparison of 3 blades conventional wind mills. The initial requiremts is for 200 MW X 10 projects in India