American wind power had its most productive first quarter for installations since 2012, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported. Wind added 520MW of new electric generating capacity to the power grid from January through March, according to AWEA’s U.S. Wind Industry First Quarter 2016 Market Report.
Construction started on another 2,000MW, with a total of more than 10,100MW of wind capacity now under construction. Turbines were installed at seven projects across six states this quarter; Oklahoma led the country with 270MW of wind capacity installations, followed by Iowa (154MW), Utah (62MW) and New Mexico (32MW). Turbine manufacturers reported over 800 MW of new orders in the first quarter. The wind industry supported 88,000 jobs in the USA at the start of the year, an increase of 20 per cent from 2014, including over 21,000 jobs manufacturing wind turbine parts and materials at more than 500 factories across 43 states.
