Mark Del Franco, 11 April 2013 (North American Windpower)
“…[I]n 2012, U.S. wind energy - for the first time - was the No. 1 new source of electricity generation, contributing 42% of all the megawatts installed by the power sector...[and] 43% of utilities reported having wind energy as part their system…[according to the American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA) newly released U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report for 2012…[W]ind development broke all previous U.S. records for annual installs last year with more than 13.1 GW of capacity installed, pushing the cumulative total past 60 GW… “…[T]he deadline for the production tax credit was largely responsible for last year's total…[but was also the result of stable federal and state policies]…The top-five wind developers in the U.S., according to 2012 installed capacity, were NextEra Energy Resources (which installed more than 1.5 GW in 2012), followed by Iberdrola Renewables (716 MW), EDF (formerly enXco) (658 MW), Caithness Energy (640 MW) and Duke Energy (620 MW).”
click to enlarge“…The top-five manufacturers whose units were sold in the U.S. were GE (5 GW), Siemens Energy (2.6 GW), Vestas (1.8 GW), Gamesa (1.3 GW) and REpower Systems (595 MW).Advances in wind turbine technology have boosted capacity factors…Taller towers that [reached] stronger wind resources, along with longer blades that [captured] more energy, [translated] into lower overall cost of wind-generated electricity…[and wind energy] in places previously thought unworkable… “…The U.S. wind energy industry attracted $3 billion of tax equity supporting 2.9 GW and $4.9 billion of project debt supporting 4.3 GW…”
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