Renewable Today
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Did you know....

How much wind energy is installed in the United States? 29,440 Megawatts (MW) of wind energy are currently installed in the United States, and an additional 5,866 MW are under construction. Over 8,500 MW were installed in the US in 2008 (just beating out China with 6,300 MW). This represents: 50 percent increase from 2007, 42 percent of all new generating capacity installed in 2008, $17 billion investment, 44 million tons of carbon emissions avoided (equivalent of 7 million cars)and 35,000 new jobs.

Approximately 85,000 people worked in the wind energy industry in 2008, up from 50,000 in 2007. Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sources of electricity in the world. The United States surpassed Germany last year to become the world leader in wind energy installed; 121,188 MW of wind energy were installed globally by the end of 2008, with that number expected to increase to 152,000 MW by the end of 2009. Wind energy has experienced 25 percent annual growth globally since 1990. In spite of the rapid growth, wind projects installed through the end of 2008 account for only 1.25 percent of our national electricity supply, but the US Department of Energy released a report last year stating that wind energy could comprise 20 percent of the United States supply of electricity by the year 2030 with existing technology.