Wind Power Growth, Wind for Mid-Atlantic

February 6, 2007 – Vol.11 No.46

STEADY WIND POWER GROWTH, WIND FOR MID-ATLANTIC U.S.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced recently that wind capacity in the US grew by 27 percent in 2006 with 2454 megawatts of new wind energy online. Investment in US wind for 2006 was about $4 billion. As of the end of the year, the US had a total grid-connected wind capacity of 11,603 megawatts.

The AWEA thinks capacity will grow by 26 percent in 2007.

The story from Europe is about the same. In terms of year-over-year growth, wind capacity grew 23 percent over 2005 with 7588 megawatts in new turbine capacity installed. Investment in new wind was about EUR 9 billion ($11.6 billion). Overall the EU’s wind capacity grew by 19 percent to 48,000 megawatts. (Germany still leads the way with 2233 installed in 2006 for more than 20,000 megawatts in place.)

Clearly the wind energy business has a strong future. Most of the world ISN’T powered by wind and some of the best wind resources have yet to be tapped. Think all of Canada. The US middle section is just beginning its wind industry. And that’s just North America.

Another little-tapped region for wind energy in North America is the mid-Atlantic states in the US, either offshore or in mountainous areas. But that my be changing as well.

Edison Mission Group (EMG) of California and US Wind Force (USWF) of Pennsylvania have announced signing of a joint agreement to develop up to 1,000 megawatts of wind energy projects in states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The companies said that the region has a strong voluntary demand for wind energy, its states have renewable energy portfolio standards and there’s generally a growing market for electricity in the area. The region’s grid operator PJM Interconnect has been wind-friendly for a number of years and will help bring wind power to the grid as well as deliver it to customers.

Visit US Windforce at http://web.uswindforce.com/ the AWEA at http://www.awea.org/ and the EWEA at http://www.ewea.org/