Wind Energy – USA

By Richard Chapo


One of the world's fastest growing types of renewable
energy sources is wind energy. While most of the Earth
is still reliant on different types of fossil fuels
(such as oil, natural gas and coal) for their energy
supply, many countries are trying to come up with
alternative methods of obtaining energy. Much of Europe
has begun to build and use wind farms, which are
groupings of wind turbines that harness the energy of
the wind in order to create energy and electricity.
Also involved in using wind energy, USA has started to build their own wind farms.

Wind turbines are the individual components of wind
farms, and they are machinery composed of several main
parts. The first part is the rotor, also known as the
blades or the propeller, and this is the part of the
turbine that actually collects the wind energy and
converts it into drive energy, which then turns a shaft.
This shaft actually creates the energy that is then
stored or converted into electricity. Wind farms are
groupings of many of these turbines, usually 10 or more.
The wind energy USA had capacity for in the year 2004
was 6,740 MW, with a prediction that the wind energy
capabilities of the United States will be increased by
5,000 MW in the next five years. The US Department of
Energy has a goal of obtaining 6 percent of the
country's electricity needs from wind energy by the year
2020, which is a fair goal judging by the current rate
of growth seen in the wind energy industry. California
is the state in the US that produces the most wind
energy, with 2,096 MW of wind generating capacity per
year.

As one MW is enough energy to supply energy to 240 to
300 average US homes, the amount of wind energy USA
currently produces is enough to energy 500,000 to
620,000 homes per year. The United States is currently
ranked as the third highest wind energy producing
country in the world, behind Germany and Spain. The
business of wind energy in the US is also monetarily
significant – it costs about $1,000 per kilowatt (KW) of
installed wind energy capacity. When multiplied by the
US's capacity of 6,740 KW, this makes wind energy a $7
billion industry.

Wind energy is a growing energy source in the United
States for many reasons. Wind energy is cleaner, cheaper
and more renewable than many of the current sources of
energy used in this country. Additionally, the capacity
for expansion of wind farms and ways to harness wind
energy means that as the US's energy needs grow, there
will continue to be enough energy to provide for all of
our energy needs.


Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com - providing
information on wind power as an alternative energy
platform.