US takes wind-power lead

By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: July 22 2008 03:50

The US rush into wind power has enabled the country to pass Germany to become the world’s biggest generator of such energy, according to estimates for the first half of 2008 from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
The US had not been expected to reach this milestone until the end of next year. It achieved this early, while still running behind Germany in total installed capacity, because its average wind speed in significantly stronger.

The total capacity of wind installations in Germany was 22,000 megawatts in 2007, compared with 17,000mw in the US.
Nonetheless, with growing attention on wind energy in the US, the AWEA says the country could well take the world lead in installed capacity as well by the end of this year.
“We expect to come out with a detailed analysis within the next few weeks,” said Randall Swisher, the AWEA’s executive director.
Last week, Texas gave approval for a $4.9bn (€3bn, £2.4bn) plan to build transmission lines to channel wind energy from the plains of west Texas to large cities, such as Dallas.
Interest in wind power has been growing. More than 13,000 people turned out for this year’s AWEA annual conference – an 85 per cent increase over last year.
Earlier this month, T. Boone Pickens, the veteran Texan oilman and latter-day wind advocate, unveiled the “Pickens Plan”, which calls on the US to use wind power to generate the 22 per cent of its electricity now drawn from natural gas – freeing that fuel to be used for transportation.
Mr Pickens is now spending billions of dollars to build the world’s largest wind farm in Texas.
Despite the growing interest and milestones passed, wind meets only about 1 per cent of the current US energy demand. Mr Pickens says building wind facilities from Texas to North Dakota could produce 20 per cent of electricity used by the US at a cost of $1,000bn.
It would take another $200bn to build the capacity to transmit that energy to urban areas across the country. “That’s a lot of money, but it’s a one-time cost,” he said. “And, compared with the $700bn we spend on foreign oil every year, it’s a bargain.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008