Blowing in the Wind is Big Business in the United States

Quick - what is generating 94 gigawatts of the electricity in the world? That's the equivalent of the power output of 9,400 typical coal-fired power plants. This technology accounted for 30% of the total new electrical generating capacity installed in the United States in 2007. Nope, no new nuclear plants have been built. Nope, not solar power, either.

It's the wind.

The United States installed 5.2 gigawatts of its total wind generation capacity of 16.8 gigawatts in 2007 alone, to the tune of about $9 billion invested. The generating capacity from wind accounts for the power being fed to nearly 5 million homes in the country.

And the pace is accelerating, and is expected to continue accelerating, as long as Production Tax Credits stay online at Congress, and aren't switched off again as they were in 2003-2004. The amount of electricity generated by wind in the United States jumped 27% between 2006 and 2007.

"This is the third consecutive year of record-setting growth, establishing wind power as one of the largest sources of new electricity supply for the country," said American Wind Energy Association Executive Director Randall Swisher in a press release from the Global Wind Energy Council.

"This remarkable and accelerating growth is driven by strong demand, favorable economics, and a period of welcome relief from the on-again, off-again, boom-and-bust, cycle of the federal production tax credit (PTC) for wind power," Swisher said.

The mission of the American Wind Energy Association is to promote wind power growth through advocacy, communication, and education. The current president of the trade association is Robert H. Gates, Senior Vice President of Commercial Development with Clipper Windpower, Cupertino, California.

Clipper is one of the companies benefiting from the surge in wind power installations, and has a strong presence in Europe, with an office in London, and its manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Investors in the United States should not get excited about investing with Clipper as yet - the company's stock is only traded on the London Stock Exchange, and according to Clipper's web site, is not open for sale to U.S. investors.

Clipper announced in January 2008 that it has signed a contract to deliver another 155 of its 2.5Mw wind turbine generators to UPC Wind based in Newton, Massachusetts, for deployment in the United States in 2009-2011. Clipper is also furnishing wind turbines in Denmark, France, and Spain in the European Union, and is expanding into Asian markets.