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Clean, renewable wind energy is one of the fastest growing energy sources; from 2001-2005, capacity increased about 29 percent each year. In 2005, the installation of more than 2,400 MW of wind generation raised America’s total capacity to 9,149 MW, or enough to power 2.3 million average households. |
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Globally, 11,769 MW of wind energy were added in 2005, raising worldwide capacity to 59,322 MW. |
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Setting an example are Denmark, some regions of Spain and Germany, where 10-25 percent of electricity is generated by wind power. |
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Each MW of wind can provide farmers, ranchers and other landowners with $2,000-$4,000 of income each year, and since only 2-5 percent of a wind farm’s land is needed for turbines and access roads, there’s plenty of land left over for farming, ranching and other pursuits. |
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The benefits can extend to local governments and workers, as well. Governments, particularly those in rural counties, benefit from a valuable source of property tax income, and workers benefit because each MW of wind power provides 2.5 to 3 job years of employment, and one skilled operations/ maintenance job for every 10 turbines. |
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To generate the same amount of electricity as today's U.S. wind turbine fleet (9,149 MW), we would need to burn 12 million tons of coal (picture a line of 10-ton trucks over 4,500 miles long) or 40 million barrels of oil each year. |
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When wind turbines are used to augment traditional energy production methods, each 1-MW turbine keeps four tons of nitrogen oxide, nine tons of sulfur dioxide and 1,800 tons of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, out of the atmosphere each year. The carbon dioxide displacement alone is the equivalent of planting a square mile of forest. |
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100,000 MW of wind energy reduces carbon dioxide production by nearly 150 million tons each year. That’s a whole lot of forest.
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