Winds of Change Blowing in the Right Direction

The United States is the fastest growing wind market in the world!

This amazing piece of information may seem counterintuitive, given that large projects like Cape Wind on Cape Cod have been fighting their way through red tape and hoops for years — and are still years away from fruition.

But according to the 2008 Wind Technologies Market Report (PDF), released by the US Department of Energy and prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), we have actually added to our wind power capacity by 60 percent in just one year — with $16 billion in wind-related investment. The United States has overtaken Germany in the number of wind installations. Texas is actually the fastest-growing wind energy state, with Iowa and Minnesota close behind.With so much new interest in wind power, wind-related manufacturing is also on the rise. Homegrown and foreign wind turbine makers are scaling up for new production. Prices are up for new wind turbines, and interest in the technology is continuing to peak. While the winds of change continue to buffet our economy, it seems that the wind — in general — is blowing in the right direction.

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng