There are now more than 100GW of wind farms operating across the U.S., enough to power 32 million American homes. The 100 GW milestone was first reported in the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) U.S. Wind Industry Third Quarter 2019 Market Report.
The modern U.S. wind industry was born in California in the 1980s. Starting from humble beginnings, the industry started to grow quickly in 2008. At the beginning of that year the country only had 25 GW of wind power, but in the eleven years since the industry has delivered an additional 75 GW of clean, affordable power to American consumers.
Wind strengthens the U.S. economy by supporting 114,000 jobs, 500 factories, and $1 billion each year in lease payments to landowners combined with state and local taxes. Innovation has cut the cost of wind energy by 69 percent in the last decade.
Strong wind power deployment is expected to continue. There are now 22,651 MW under construction and an additional 23,844 MW in advanced development, including 5,792 MW of offshore wind. The total pipeline (46.5MW) increased 11 percent over the second quarter and 22 percent year-over-year as project developers announced 10,090 MW of new projects in the third quarter.
