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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| US Wind Energy Industry Installs Over 2,800 MW In First Quarter |
| 2009-06-06 |
| The new wind powerprojects add up to 2,836 MW, according to initial AWEA estimates. The total wind power generating capacity in operation in the U.S. is now 28,206 MW, enough to serve over 8 million homes In state news, Kansas and New York now have over 1,000 MW of wind power generating capacity - boosting the wind power "gigawatt" state club to nine: + Texas 7,907 MW + Iowa 2,883 MW + California 2,653 MW + Minnesota 1,804 MW + Washington 1,479 MW + Oregon 1,363 MW + New York 1,261 MW + Colorado 1,068 MW + Kansas 1,014 MW In Texas, the portion of the large Roscoe project was completed, bringing the project up to 584.5 MW. The next 197-MW section of the project is slated to be completed soon, which will take it to the top of the list of the nation's largest operating wind power projects. Indiana keeps its title as fastest growing state with the large 400.3-MW project that was brought online. States tallying the most rapid growth in wind capacity in the first quarter include: + Indiana 75% + Maine 55% + Nebraska 53% + Idaho 49% + New York 34% |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #2 in San Diego County - the Indian Reservations have taken the lead - most are East-County Mountain-based, and they've been building wind towers like crazy along I-8 (the winds get high there) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-06-06 18:52 |
| #1 I noticed something a little funny about the figures. If you take 28,206 MW and divide it among 8,000,000 homes you get 3.52 KW of "wind power" supplied per home. The average usage per home based on typical consumers in the US is about 1.2 Kw . My electric bill averages to about 29 KW-HR per day. What this means is that wind power has a duty cycle such that it delivers only 35% of peak plant capacity on average. Or put another way, you would need 3 times as many wind power plants all things being equal as you would need for conventional nuclear, gas or coal plants which typically operate near high capacity for the bulk of their lifetimes. Oh, yes, and wind power has been subsidized in the past through various government tax incentives to the tune of about 19 cents on the dollar. So wind is inefficient, unreliable, economically unsustainable but its the wave of the future? |
| Posted by: WTF 2009-06-06 18:21 |