The cumulative total of U.S. installed wind capacity could exceed 9,200 MW by the end of this year, meeting demand from 2.4 million homes, says the American Wind Energy Association in its third quarter market report. That capacity would avoid the combustion of half a billion cubic feet of natural gas each day, out of the country’s daily consumption of 13 Bcf/day.
"Wind power’s rapid growth provides what is potentially the quickest and best supply-side option to ease the natural gas shortage," says executive director Randall Swisher. "The wind power industry is stepping up to provide the U.S. with a significant amount of its power needs in this time of uncertainty."
The growth in wind power construction comes as customers are facing increases for electricity and natural gas rates due to the supply shortage of gas, with winter prices projected to be double the average price of last year. Wind can provide a "hedge against rising energy costs because wind energy production is immune from fuel price spikes," AWEA explains, and because prices at the margin are volatile and sensitive to supply and demand pressures, each unit of natural gas that is conserved by generation from wind turbines "helps shave down costs even further in times of crunch."
AWEA projects that 14,000 MW of wind capacity could be part of the generation supply mix by the end of 2007, producing the equivalent of 0.85 Bcf/day of natural gas.
There are 58 wind projects under construction now, including the 221 MW Horse Hollow windfarm in Texas and the 198 MW Maple Ridge facility in New York. The leading supplier is GE Wind with 1,017 turbines among the known projects. Texas, Oklahoma and New York are the three leading states for wind installations this year.
