Houston (Platts)--24Sep2009/756 pm EDT/2356 GMT

Wind energy developers said Thursday that they expect to see China take the lead this year in terms of newly installed wind generation, but added they hope that the US bounces back into the lead either in 2010 or by 2011.

Steve Sawyer, the secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council, said China is expected to install 10,000 MW of new wind generation this year. In contrast, 8,500 MW of wind generation was installed in the US in 2008.

Speaking during a Washington-based conference call Thursday, American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode said the US is expected to install, at most, 6,000 MW this year. She noted that AWEA is focused now on third quarter installation numbers after tabulating just over 4,000 MW of newly installed capacity in the first half of this year.

Bode said while as much as 5,000 MW of wind new capacity currently may be in the US pipeline, AWEA expects somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 MW of that to be completed this year.

The US Department of the Treasury and the Department of Energy on Tuesday announced a second round of cash grants given to wind and solar projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's 1603 stimulus program.

Disbursements for projects that already have been completed totaled $550 million. Of that, $460 million went to three wind developers.

Iberdrola Renewables, the US affiliate of the Spain-based Iberdrola, received $250.8 million for three projects with 426 MW of combined capacity in Missouri, Iowa and Texas. E.ON Climate and Renewables, the US affiliate of Germany's E.ON, received $121.9 million for its 249-MW Pyron wind farm in Texas and Japan's Eurus Energy received $91.3 million for its 180-MW Bull Creek facility in Texas.

On September 1, Treasury and DOE announced the first phase of cash subsidies, which totaled $502 million. Of that, wind developers received almost all of the funds, with Iberdrola alone receiving $294.5 million.

During Thursday's conference call, GWEC, AWEA, and representatives from the European Wind Energy Association, Iberdrola, and Denmark-based wind equipment manufacturer Vestas argued that they expect the US market to return to growth after the industry was hit last fall by the credit squeeze.

Peter Brun, Vestas' head of government affairs called the US stimulus bill "highly important," but added the US still needs "a game changer, a stable, long-term regulatory instrument that would give transparency."

Brun added that Vestas will be investing $1 billion over the next two years building out its manfucaturing capacity in the US. He said Vestas currently employs 2,000 people in the US and expects to have 4,500 people in the US by the end of next year.

--Jeffrey Ryser, jeffrey_ryser@platts.com