Top 5: Wind led clean energy progress in 2015

January 14, 2016 | By

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has announced that wind led the clean energy sector in terms of progress in 2015.

Sebastian Celis/Creative Commons

"This American success story is not only helping us build a better world for our children, it's also helping consumers save money," said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association. "Wind energy's continuing growth is something that should make all Americans proud."

Some of those growth spurts include:

  1. Adding more capacity than any other energy source -- leading the country with 47 percent of all new electric generating capacity in 2015. Gas and solar followed at 35 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
  2. More than quadrupling total capacity since 2008 -- up from 16,702 megawatts (MW) installed at the start of that year to over 70,000 MW as of November 2015 -- enough to power over 19 million homes.
  3. Cutting costs 66 percent in six years due to technological advances.
  4. Setting records for share of the electricity mix across entire states and regions using electricity from wind year round. In total, nine states are over 12 percent.
  5. Supplying 57 percent of the additional energy in the lowest-cost compliance solution for the Clean Power Plan. A recent study by the Energy Information Administration found that wind energy consistently emerged as the most cost-effective method of reducing emissions. 

Google, Amazon and Proctor & Gamble all recently made large wind energy purchases, while cities from San Diego to Washington, D.C. are increasing their share of renewable energy. 

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