TechPulse 360

Iowa gets more of its electricity from wind power than any other state – 14%. Texas has greatest generating capacity and the largest farms.

Across the country, 85,000 people are employed in the wind energy industry, with 10 new manufacturing plants beginning operation last year.

Iowa gets more of its electricity from wind power than any other state - 14 percent. Texas has the most utility-scale farms.

These are the findings of the American Wind Energy Associations annual report on the industry, released Thursday. China is out muscling the United States and most other countries with its efforts to add wind generation and manufacturing capacity.

But the U.S. is not standing still. The study finds that the nation installed 10,000 MW of wind power in 2009, more than any other year. Sure, new project planning slowed during the year, but 36 states now have utility-scale farms and 14 have more than a GW of generating capacity.

Leading the wind turbine market is GE and the largest owner of wind farms is NextEra Energy Resources. Xcel Energy of Minnesota is the utility with the wind power feeding into its distribution gird.

According to the report, 10 manufacturing plants came into operation last year and 20 new ones were announced. Even the market for small, residential, turbines chugged along. It grew 15 percent, with 20 MW of capacity sold.

Obviously the industry has a tough battle ahead considering the gargantuan resources China is putting behind wind energy and that country’s cheap labor. The challenge is all the more daunting give the tight credit conditions that linger in North America.

But look to the bright side. At least credit is not as tight as with solar farms.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.