National Trends
| Megawatts of Installed Generating Capacity since 2001 |
| Thousand Megawatthours Generated since 1997 |
Over the last few years, wind power in the U.S. has been increasing rapidly. In 2010, however, new construction was about half of the previous year due to various factors, including the financial crisis, and recession. The graph at left shows the growth in installed wind generation capacity in the United States based on data from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. In 2008, installed capacity in the U.S. increased by 50% over the prior year. The world average growth rate that year was 28.8%.
New wind farms can produce electricity in the 5-8 cents per kWh range, making wind power competitive with the cost of fossil fuel electricity generation in many markets. Fifteen states have each installed over 1,000 MW of wind capacity, and a total of 39 states and Puerto Rico now have installed at least some utility-scale wind power. Much of the new wind power capacity is being built in the Great Plains and Midwest regions of the United States, which have a favorable combination of characteristics: ample wind resources, an extensive rail and highway network for shipping outsized turbine components, flat topography which both improves the wind and makes turbine components easier to ship, and broad acceptance from local farmers and ranchers. New development in some locations, however, is being limited by lack of additional capacity to transmit power to locations where it can be used.
Read more about this topic: Wind Power In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or trends:
“While I do not think it was so intended I have always been of the opinion that this turned out to be much the best for me. I had no national experience. What I have ever been able to do has been the result of first learning how to do it. I am not gifted with intuition. I need not only hard work but experience to be ready to solve problems. The Presidents who have gone to Washington without first having held some national office have been at great disadvantage.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Thanks to recent trends in the theory of knowledge, history is now better aware of its own worth and unassailability than it formerly was. It is precisely in its inexact character, in the fact that it can never be normative and does not have to be, that its security lies.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)