US wind power grows 39% in 2009

US Wind Power

2009 could and maybe should have been a terrible year for the wind power industry after the economic crisis led to huge job losses as many other industries, far more established than the renewable energy sector, felt the pinch badly.

But President Obama's financial stimulus funds effectively rescued the wind industry as people began to realise the renewable energy sector's capacity to generate new jobs.

The combined power generating capacity of new US wind turbines installed last year hit more than 9,900MW, up from a gain of over 8,400 MW in the previous year. Total capacity hit more than 35,000MW, or about enough to power 9.7 million homes, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said.

Nationwide, Texas led the way with 9,410MW of installed wind power, with 2,292 put in place in 2009. An impressive 6 percent of Texas' energy was produced by wind last year.

Private investments crashed

However, jobs associated with wind energy stalled at 85,000 - the same number as a year ago after it gained 13,000 manufacturing jobs in 2008, according to Denise Bode, CEO of the AWEA. However it still lost a number of highly sought-after manufacturing jobs.

After private investments in wind-farm projects crash early last year, many industry experts were forecasting wind-power development to drop 50 percent in year-end levels compared with 2008.

But 2009 federal stimulus dollars, reaching $2.25 billion for dozens of wind projects and wind turbine-component manufacturers, buffeted the recession's impact, Bode says.

"The stimulus was a real spur to development," she says. "We saved half an industry."

"Things could have ground to a halt"

2000 manufacturing jobs lost

Even though the industry lost around 2000 manufacturing jobs, it was thought to have gained at least equal that amount in wind farm construction and maintenance.

Without the stimulus funds, "things would've ground to a halt," says Gary Hardke, president of the San Diego-based Cannon Power Group. It has installed 400 megawatts of wind power in Washington state in the past 18 months and secured $19 million in stimulus funds. Without the funds, the project "would've stalled out," Hardke says.

Wind energy still only accounts for around 1 percent of America's total power consumption, but with plans to upgrade the ancient and antiquated national electricity grid over the next two decades renewable energy will have a far more important role to play as the country tries to move away from foreign energy imports and cut carbon emissions.

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