Colorado has expanded its wind portfolio and now generates 14.2 percent of its in-state electricity from wind power, according to the report, and the state’s Public Utilities Commission has noted that a single wind-power purchase agreement by Xcel Energy in 2011 “will save ratepayers $100 million over its 25-year term”.
Advertisement
“The industry is thriving thanks to policy stability, and we appreciate support from champions in Congress for a multi-year extension of the PTC”, he continues.
After emerging from several years of policy uncertainty that placed American jobs at risk, wind energy is now on track to grow from supplying around 5% of USA electricity today, to 10% by 2020, and 20% by 2030, according to the report.
“Utilities announced large scale wind power investments during the second quarter”, the AWEA said in its press release, but only highlighted the up-to-2 GW Wind XI project, being developed by MidAmerican Energy in Iowa, which committed to investing $3.6 billion into the project. And it will create more than 1,500 jobs at the height of construction.
The utility plans to add up to 500 megawatts of wind energy.
“This is what an efficient, performance-driven policy delivers – more low-priced clean energy and the American jobs that make it happen”.
Josh Mandelbaum, staff attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said the project “further cements Iowa’s position as a national renewable energy leader”.
The group reported that more than 12,000 megawatts were under construction at the end of the second quarter, a high for the past six months. More specifically, a total of 169 wind turbines were installed during the second quarter over four states.
The new wind project is part of Alliant Energy’s vision for a clean energy future. By comparison, the number of people who work in wind turbine manufacturing is around 20,000, according to data compiled by the American Wind Energy Association. The company, a unit of Italy’s Enel SpA (BIT:ENEL), started construction of the 400-MW Cimarron Bend wind farm in Kansas in the second quarter.
Year-to-date installations stand at 830MW, with the USA now having total installed wind power capacity of 74.821GW, AWEA said.
Advertisement
The full report can be found here.
