August 10, 2015 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

Amidst near-term uncertainty about the federal wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released two reports that puts the power of wind in perspective.

Credit: DOE

In 2014, the U.S. wind energy industry continued to grow at an impressive rates and further solidified the country's position as a global wind leader, according to the two reports. And with rapidly increasing wind energy generation, fast-growing demand, and steadily decreasing wind energy prices (by nearly two-thirds over the last six years) -- the lowest ever seen in the United States -- the U.S. wind energy market remains strong.

One of the reports, the 2014 Wind Technologies Market Report, produced in conjunction with DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, identifies a new trend: Utility-scale turbines with larger rotors designed for lower wind speeds have been increasingly deployed across the country in 2014. Further, in 2014, total installed wind power capacity in the United States grew at a rate of eight percent and stands at nearly 66 gigawatts (GW), ranking second in the world and meeting 4.9 percent of end-use electricity demand in an average year. These findings also suggest that the success of the U.S. wind industry has had a ripple effect on the American economy, supporting 73,000 jobs related to development, siting, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries -- an increase of 22,500 jobs from 2013 to 2014.

 

According to the second newly-released report, the 2014 Distributed Wind Market Report, produced with the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in total, U.S. turbines in distributed applications reached a cumulative installed capacity of more than 906 megawatts (MW) -- capacity that comes from roughly 74,000 turbines installed across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Compared with traditional, centralized power plants, distributed wind energy installations supply power directly to the local grid near homes, farms, businesses, and communities. Turbines used in these applications can range in size from a few hundred watts to multi-megawatts, and can help power remote, off-grid homes and farms, as well as local schools and manufacturing facilities.

The report further demonstrates that America's distributed wind energy industry supports a growing domestic industrial base. U.S.-based small wind turbine manufacturers claimed another strong year of exports to countries across the globe, accounting for nearly 80 percent of total sales worldwide.

These results have been made possible, in large part, due to the success of performance-based renewable energy tax incentives in driving U.S. manufacturing and innovation. The cost of wind energy has fallen 65.5 percent since 2009, according to the DOE report, and the U.S. is the global leader in total wind energy production, with enough to power the equivalent of 18 million average American homes.

Wind power is a key component of President Obama's all-of-the-above energy strategy and the federal Clean Power Plan (CPP) to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, diversify the energy economy, and boost the country's economic competitiveness by bringing innovative technologies online -- but is that enough?

"While this report is good news, extending the Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit remains critical for keeping Americans at work, reducing the cost of wind energy and continuing to scale up this homegrown resource through the end of this decade," said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). "Wind energy is increasingly cost-competitive in several parts of the U.S., but we need stable, predictable policy to continue bringing this consumer benefit to every corner of the country. Policy stability will keep this American economic success story going."

According to AWEA, wind power supports 73,000 direct jobs in 50 states, with nearly 20,000 well-paid manufacturing jobs. Federal policy plays a critical role in the wind industry's decisions to make long-term investments in U.S. manufacturing facilities, research and development, and worker training to create the modern American wind industry. An extension of the PTC and ITC enables the private investment needed for American wind power to make the further gains in productivity needed to achieve cost competitiveness with more traditional sources of electricity.

For more:
- see the reports here and here

 

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