The Growth of Wind Power in the United States

The United States has seen significant growth of wind energy over the past decade. In 2005 alone, there were 2,400 MW of wind power capacity installed in the U.S. For 2006, there is a projected 3,000 MW to bring online over the course of the year. As of June 30, 2006, the United States has 9,971 MW of installed wind capacity, enough to server over 2.3 million average American households. The map below shows the installed wind power capacity of each state as of July 25, 2006.

From year-end 2000 to 2005, the U.S. wind industry has grown at a rate of 29%. The United State Department of Energy predicts that by 2010, there will be 13,900 MW of installed capacity and 41,700 MW by 2015. This growth has been greatly aided by the improvement in wind turbine technology, with large new turbines with rated capacities up to 3MW, able to generate up to 120 times as much electricity at one-sixth the cost of turbines from the 1980s.