AWEA Blog - American wind energy goes back to business, creating U.S. jobs

In 2012, wind energy for the first time became the number one source of new U.S. electric power generation, providing some 42 percent of all new generating capacity.

Projects that are helping strengthen the wind power industry include:

• Siemens’restaffing its wind turbine manufacturing operations in Fort Madison, Iowa, and Hutchinson, Kan., reflecting new “confidence in the American market,” according to a company spokeswoman. (February 25, North American Windpower)
• Hawaii’s Awahi Wind facility launching operations on the island of Maui, a project of Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and BP Wind Energy. (February 25, Electric Light & Power/POWERGRID International)
• Wind industry projects in Texas, seen as important sources of new engineering jobs. The Houston Chronicle reports, ”Andrew Swift, director, Texas Wind Energy Institute and Texas Tech’s wind-degree program, believes two engineering disciplines are in highest demand in the wind-energy sector – mechanical and electrical.” (February 25, Houston Chronicle)
• Vestas Wind Systems A/V’s addition of 100 workers at its tower manufacturing plant in Pueblo, Colo., offsetting a previous reduction in workforce at blade factories in Windsor and Brighton, Colo. (January 16, KOAA.com)
• New wind power installations and manufacturing facilities in the Texas Panhandle, including Cielo Wind Energy’s Spinning Spur “wind ranch”northwest of Vega, Texas, and Alstom’s equipment manufacturing plant in Amarillo. (January 7, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)
• The 300-megawatt Pleasant Valley Wind Farm in Mower County, Minn. “It is one of the largest wind farm developments in the state of Minnesota with advanced permitting and [is] ready to build,”RES Americas Vice President of Development Joe DeVito told the press. (January 7, Austin Daily Herald)
• The Prairie Breeze Wind Energy Center near Elgin in northern Nebraska, which represents a $350 million capital investment and could create 300 construction jobs. (January 4, Journal-Star)
• Geronimo Wind Energy’s Courtenay, N.D., wind farm, which could be sized between 100 and 200 megawatts and range from about 58 to 120 turbines. The total cost of the project would be between $200 million and $350 million. (January 7, Prairie Business)
• St. Louis-based companies Emerson, electric component maker ABB and carbon fiber manufacturer Zoltek. As the St. Louis Business Journal reported, “Zoltek was already ‘well on the way to a record year in fiscal 2012’ thanks to its growth in the wind energy industry, according to chairman and chief executive Zsolt Rumy. The extension of the Production Tax Credit will help Zoltek keep that momentum going in 2013, Rumy said. ‘This is definitely helpful because investors were holding back on projects to see what would happen.’” (January 2, St. Louis Business Journal)