Most people think wind energy, or generating electricity using wind mill turbines, will play only a small role in the emerging renewable energy resources sector in the US. Not so, reports Doug Moss, editor of E – The Environmental Magazine. Wind has big potential for clean energy and job growth.
According to his recent article there, wind power accounted for 35 percent of all new electricity generation in the US in 2007, and as of September 2008, the US surpassed Germany to lead the world in wind energy production.
In fact, wind energy has over 20,000 megawatts of generating capacity, enough to serve over 5 million homes or provide power to 1 million hybrid vehicles, Moss writes.
Even with this capacity, however, the wind energy industry produced only about 12,500 megawatts, or roughly 60 percent of its total capacity, the E-Magazine article notes.
But new incentives for the industry attached to the energy bill passed late last year, which unfortunately included some incentives for offshore oil drilling as well, could boost wind energy production to the 30,000 megawatt mark in 2009.
This development is huge in terms of a new trend towards the production of clean energy replacing the use of fossil fuels. Even less than full capacity electricity production from wind power in 2008 saw enough electricity generated to displace the use of 30 million tons of coal or 90 million tons of oil. In terms of the emission of greenhouse gases that cause global warming, wind energy production in 2008 alone displaced 34 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is the equivalent of taking almost 6 million vehicles off the road.
Experts, the article reports, estimate that even if 20 percent of the total US energy grid came from wind power in the next two decades, the clean energy produced would eliminate greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that produced by 140 million vehicles.
One industry spokesperson quoted in the article argued, however, that the wind energy industry is capable ultimately of producing about 600 gigawatts of power, or about 60 percent of all US electricity consumption.
With the necessary incentives to help this renewable energy industry grow, wind could soon compete with coal fired plants as a major source of electricity. Coal currently produces about 50 percent of all electricity consumed in the US and thousands of tons of emissions that cause global warming.
So far, no technology exists to produce "clean" coal.
Developments in the emergent wind industry will also create jobs and generate revenues for local communities. Some basic industries in the US could be revitalized if the emergent wind industry is given incentives and requirements to rely on US-produced goods it needs, such as steel parts for wind mills.
In a press conference last September, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard emphasized to reporters the importance of the development of the wind energy industry for steelworkers.
"On an average-sized wind mill," Gerard noted, "there are 26 tons of steel. With the slight increase we've had in America on wind mill production for wind energy, we've already had to re-open and re-invigorate two [steel] plate mills in the United States that were barely hanging on."
New investments in public infrastructure and renewable energy sectors, included in the Obama economic recovery package could stimulate even more growth in wind energy production in 2009.
Wind is good for jobs and good for turning the tide against global warming.
