The new Clean Power Plan is going to require the U.S. to use a lot more renewable energy by 2030. This plan couldn’t have been released at any better time for the Wind industry. The Department of Energy, which is charge of reducing Carbon Dioxide emissions, released two new reports that wind energy is booming.
These reports suggest that wind is being installed fast. This is causing the wind prices to go down, the technologies are advancing, and it’s creating many news jobs.
The United States has 66 gigawatts of wind energy installed currently. This supplies 5% of our energy needs and can power up to 17.5 million homes. 13 more gigawatts are in the construction phase and will be online by 2016. (Just so you know, 1,063 gigawatts was how much energy it took to power the U.S. in 2012.)
Wind is providing 73,000 jobs currently.
The current cost for buying a Power Purchase Agreement, which is when you buy a wind farm, is at a low of 2.35 cents per kilowatt hour.
Many new large companies are investing in wind energy to power their buildings or to make money. One example is Google.
Another key to the advancement of wind energy is advancing the technologies. Wind turbines are getting taller. Their heights have increased by an average of 82.7 meters for new turbines. The diameter of rotors has also grown. They are now at an average of 99.4 meters. The taller and larger wind turbines grow means more energy, because of the fact that wind speeds are faster higher up in the sky.
The second report being released today is focusing on the distributed wind energy market. This refers to people who don’t buy a whole wind farm, but just a few wind turbines. Most of the time it is for on site electricity. (There is one of these where I live. They call it Hueco Mountain Wind Ranch. I don’t understand how two wind turbines can be a wind ranch…)
These reports suggest that wind is being installed fast. This is causing the wind prices to go down, the technologies are advancing, and it’s creating many news jobs.
The United States has 66 gigawatts of wind energy installed currently. This supplies 5% of our energy needs and can power up to 17.5 million homes. 13 more gigawatts are in the construction phase and will be online by 2016. (Just so you know, 1,063 gigawatts was how much energy it took to power the U.S. in 2012.)
Wind is providing 73,000 jobs currently.
The current cost for buying a Power Purchase Agreement, which is when you buy a wind farm, is at a low of 2.35 cents per kilowatt hour.
Many new large companies are investing in wind energy to power their buildings or to make money. One example is Google.
Another key to the advancement of wind energy is advancing the technologies. Wind turbines are getting taller. Their heights have increased by an average of 82.7 meters for new turbines. The diameter of rotors has also grown. They are now at an average of 99.4 meters. The taller and larger wind turbines grow means more energy, because of the fact that wind speeds are faster higher up in the sky.
The second report being released today is focusing on the distributed wind energy market. This refers to people who don’t buy a whole wind farm, but just a few wind turbines. Most of the time it is for on site electricity. (There is one of these where I live. They call it Hueco Mountain Wind Ranch. I don’t understand how two wind turbines can be a wind ranch…)
The Only Two Wind Turbines In El Paso, Texas at the Hueco Mountain Wind Ranch