Survey: U.S. is top producer of wind power

Survey: U.S. is top producer of wind power
NATION IS WORLD'S LEADING PRODUCER OF WIND POWER, WITH MORE GROWTH FORECAST
By Matt Nauman
Mercury News
Article Launched: 07/30/2008

The American Wind Energy Association is expected to release a survey next month that says the United States has become the world's leading wind producer, and that the industry expects rapid growth to continue in places like Texas, the Great Plains and California.

The survey calculates that the U.S. wind industry now tops Germany in terms of how much energy is being produced from wind. Germany still has more installed capacity - 22,000 megawatts vs. 17,000 in the United States at the end of 2007. But the average wind speed is stronger here, which means more energy is being generated, the group said.

And this year, Germany will add only about 1,600 megawatts of wind energy, while the United States will add more than 6,000 megawatts, said Randy Swisher, executive director of the association.

"The numbers themselves are not what matters," Swisher said. "What matters is that the wind industry around the world recognizes that the U.S. is the largest market."

That's important because many of the world's leading wind companies are not U.S. companies, and they will need to move manufacturing jobs here as the U.S. wind industry grows, Swisher said. His group says 4,000 wind-related manufacturing jobs have been added in the United States since 2007.

Currently, wind provides about 1 percent of U.S. electricity.

Pacific Gas & Electric has been using wind power for decades, and has been aggressive in adding new contracts for wind energy in the past four years as it strives to meet California's renewable energy goal of 20 percent by 2010.

PG&E has 1,164 megawatts of wind energy in operation or under contract, said spokeswoman Jennifer Zerwer.

Enxco, a wind developer, remains "very bullish" on California as a location for future projects, said Mark Tholke, who coordinates projects for the company out of its San Ramon office.

The company is adding jobs and buying land in places such as Tehachapi, Tholke said. It's also constructing a 150-megawatt project in Solano County, near Rio Vista.

The cost of wind power is almost comparable to fossil fuels such as coal, at between 4.5 and 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour, according to FPL Energy, builder of the country's largest wind farm in Horse Hollow, Texas. But building a wind farm costs more than a fossil-fuel plant - from $1.5 million to $2 million per megawatt of capacity vs. $800,000 for a natural-gas plant. Once constructed, though, wind plants have no fuel costs, compared with coal and natural gas plants.

The industry says that 250 to 300 average U.S. homes are served by 1 megawatt of wind energy.