American wind industry jobs and turbine deployment regained momentum heading into 2015, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported in releasing its 2014 results in the U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report. The U.S. wind industry added 23,000 jobs in 2014, boosting the sector’s total to 73,000 jobs.
2015 began with 12,700MW of wind projects under construction, a record for the start of any year. Four times more new wind generating capacity came online last year than in 2013. 2013 wind deployment was down 92 per cent from 2012 levels because of policy uncertainty caused by the brief lapse of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) at the end of 2012. That lapse resulted in the loss of 30,000 wind industry jobs in America. In the U.S. wind manufacturing sector specifically, wind now employs nearly 20,000 workers in more than 500 facilities across 43 states, in addition to 53,000 other jobs in project development, construction, operations, and other parts of the industry. The U.S. wind industry drove US$ 12 billion in private investment last year, for a total of more than US$ 100 billion since 2008. The U.S. “wind rush” is at its height in Texas, with 7,500MW of wind projects currently under construction, more than all other states combined. The wind industry invested US$ 3 billion in Texas last year, bringing total cumulative investment to over US$ 26 billion.
