Date: 9/21/2016

3 p.m. ET The United States ranks second in the world for wind power capacity and remains first in the world for electricity generated from wind power, according to the 2015 Wind Technologies Market Report released by the Energy Department and its Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Total installed wind power capacity from turbines rated at more than 100 kilowatts in the United States grew at an impressive rate of 12% in 2015 and stands at nearly 74 gigawatts, meeting an estimated 5.6% of U.S. end-use electricity demand in an average year. The nearly 8.6 gigawatts of capacity installed during 2015—representing more new deployment than any other electricity source—is a 77% increase over total installations in 2014. The report also finds that wind energy continues to be sold at attractive prices through power purchase agreements, making this renewable energy source fully cost-competitive with traditional power sources in many parts of the United States. In fact, wind generated a total of more than 190 million megawatt hours of electricity in 2015—enough to power more than 19 million average U.S. homes and save the equivalent of more than 130 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2015.

The report also illustrates how the U.S. wind industry has positively impacted the American workforce by currently supporting 88,000 jobs related to development, siting, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries—an increase of 15,000 jobs in 2015.

To learn more about the U.S. wind industry and findings from the 2015 Wind Technologies Market Report, join WINDExchange and Ryan Wiser and Mark Bolinger of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for a free webinar on September 21. Although the webinar is free, registration is required.

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