World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

January 23, 2005 – Vol.9 No.44

WORLD WIND WATCH.

The European Wind Energy Association reports that wind power capacity in the European Union grew from 28,568 megawatts at the end of 2003 to 34,205 megawatts by the end of 2004 - a 20 percent increase.

The addition of 5703 megawatts represented EUR 5.7 billion ($7.4 billion) in investment. Visit the EWEA at http://www.ewea.org/ .

So far, towards the end of this first month of the year there are few announcements of new wind farms to be built in the U.S. this year. The silence from the industry leads one to believe it will be a slow year for new wind. If companies don’t move quickly they won’t be able to take advantage of the production tax credit for wind energy that will expire at midnight December 31.

One company that is moving ahead is Xcel Energy. The company is now in negotiations with three wind power developers to add 400 megawatts to the company’s green power portfolio. Those projects will be built, up and running by year’s end.

The company also wants to add more wind capacity in 2006, provided Congress once again extends the PTC. Visit Xcel at http://www.xcelenergy.com/