Both the USA and Canada experienced record installations of wind power plant in 2005, but an even bigger boost is expected in 2006 when new installations in North America will grow by over 50% according to a new study by Emerging Energy Research (EER), a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research and advisory company.
According to EER, new wind power plant installations in North America are expected to surpass 4,000MW in 2006, and may grow by nearly 6,000MW per year by 2010 if the US government continues with favourable regulatory policies. A sharp increase in US wind power installations follows the extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC), first at the end of 2004 and further extended to 2007 through the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This three-year horizon is breaking the boom and bust cycle that has plagued the US wind industry. State renewable energy initiatives as well as the spiking costs of natural gas, a power generation mainstay, have fuelled wind power demand. These and other findings are found in EER’s recently released study, US/Canada Wind Power Markets and Strategies 2005–2010.
