Dive Summary:
- According to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) 2012 Wind Technologies Market Report, written in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the 2012 Market Report on Wind Technologies in Distributed Applications, written in partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the U.S. continues to be one of the largest and fastest-growing wind energy producers in the world. The reports state that, for the first time, wind power was the leading source of new U.S. power generation capacity in 2012.
- The U.S. added more than 13 gigawatts (GW) of wind power to the grid in 2012, doubling the amount of wind capacity deployed in 2011, with $25 billion total in U.S. wind investments. By the end of 2012, total wind capacity in the U.S. topped 60 GW and distributed wind reached a total of 812 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity across 69,000 units.
- Nine states, including Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas, currently use wind power for more than 12% of their total annual electricity consumption.
- Despite high hopes for wind, this year's expiration of the federal tax credit for wind and a lack of consistent policy is expected to slow the U.S. wind market.
From the article:
“In his recently unveiled Climate Action Plan, Obama pledged to again double electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.”