Yesterday American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) on the state of affairs of the industry in the third quarter of 2019. It turned out that the generation of electricity in the United States by wind power exceeded the landmark threshold of 100 gigawatts. During the quarter, new wind farms with a total capacity of about 2 gigawatts (1927 megawatts) were deployed in the United States, which also became a record for the entire time of monitoring this industry.
As it turned out from the AWEA report, at the state level in the United States, the state of Texas is in the lead. In this state, the total capacity of existing wind turbines exceeds 27 GW. At the same time, it must be remembered that, in fact, this entire park of windmills will generate as much electricity as the weather conditions (wind strength) provide. Currently, AWEA says, "wind provides clean and efficient electricity to 32 million American homes, supports 500 American factories, and generates more than $XNUMX billion a year in new revenue for rural communities and states."
Another important point in the report of the Association can be considered the total lag of the United States from Europe in the issue of placing wind farms on the high seas. In Europe, the total capacity of offshore wind turbines reaches 18,4 GW. In the US, this direction is in its infancy. So far, Americans can boast of one such farm in the Rhode Island area with a capacity of 30 MW, which began operating at the end of 2016.
Analysts believe that in the coming years, offshore wind farms will begin to develop at an impressive pace. Thus, by 2040 it will be a business with an annual turnover of more than $1 billion, which implies a 15-fold expansion of capacities located in the water.
Finally, let's estimate the scale of electricity generation by wind power in the United States. According to the US Energy Information Administration, 2018 billion kWh of electricity was generated in 4171. Of this amount, 64% of electricity was obtained from the combustion of fossil fuels and only 6,5% or 232 billion kWh was obtained from wind.
Source: 3dnews.ru