US wind energy industry enjoys record 2009

Wind power projects in the US enjoyed unprecedented growth in 2009, according to new figures from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) that show total wind energy capacity grew 39 per cent last year.

However, the Association warned that some of the economic benefits associated with this rapid scaling up of wind energy were being lost as a result of insufficient government support for the country's fledgling turbine manufacturing industry.

According to the Association's fourth quarter report [PDF], the stimulus package, passed in January 2009, saw a massive increase in capacity throughout the year with almost 10,000MW of new wind power installed, taking total US installed wind capacity to almost 35,000MW. Encouragingly, the fourth quarter was the strongest to date, with almost 4,000MW of new capacity connected to the grid.

AWEA chief executive Denise Bode credited the Obama administration's stimulus package with accelerating growth in the sector at a time when many renewable energy experts expected the market to slow as a result of the recession.

"The US wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon, and protecting consumers," she said.

The rapid growth in wind energy also provided further evidence that the US is slowly transitioning away from carbon-intensive fuels, with the AWEA noting wind power and natural gas are running "neck-and-neck" in the race to become the leading source of new electricity generation, together accounting for about 80 per cent of new capacity.

However, the report warned that support for new wind farms is not being matched by support for wind manufacturing plants.

"At the same time, the continuing lack of a long-term policy and market signal allowed total investment in the manufacturing sector to drop compared to 2008, with one-third fewer online, announced and expanded wind power manufacturing facilities in 2009," said the report. "The result was net job losses in the manufacturing sector, which were compounded by low orders due to high inventory."

Bode said that the slowdown in new manufacturing projects represented the " the canary in the mine" for the industry and urged the government to "set hard targets, in the form of a national Renewable Electricity Standard [RES], in order to provide the necessary stability for manufacturers to expand their US operations".

Regionally, Texas maintained its historic lead in wind project installations last year, adding 2,292MW of new capacity - 2.5 times its nearest competitor, Indiana. The strong performance came in spite of the postponement of oil baron T Boone Pickens' planned wind farm in the state, which would have added up to 4GW of wind power to the Texan wind portfolio.

Although Texas still leads the field in terms of total wind capacity, the fastest growth last year came from Arizona, which created its first utility-scale wind project. It was followed by Utah, Indiana, Maine and Massachusetts.