Washington, D.C., United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] Wind energy leaders in most categories held onto their top positions in the latest version of the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) annual rankings of wind power leadership in the United States, released by the trade group.
The new listings, based on numbers compiled at the end of 2007, closely resemble those from the previous year, with Texas leading among states in both total and new wind power. FPL Energy is still operating the nation’s largest wind farms. GE Energy captured the largest U.S. market share for wind turbines and Xcel Energy currently has more wind on its system than any other investor-owned utility.
Iowa leads the nation in wind generation on a percentage basis, obtaining 5.5% of its electricity from the renewable energy source while Great River Energy and CPS Energy led the pack among rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities, respectively. Turbines from manufacturer Vestas are the most installed in the U.S.
“The numbers in this year’s rankings also underscore the wind energy industry’s strong growth and the fact that wind is a bright spot in the U.S. economy. Hopefully, federal policymakers will take note and move quickly to extend the wind production tax credit (PTC) incentive, providing the foundation for further investment and job creation going forward,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher.
With total installed U.S. wind power capacity now over 16,800 MW, or enough to serve the equivalent of 4.5 million average households, wind was the second largest source of new electrical capacity in the nation, behind only natural gas, for the past three years.
