US wind capacity reached almost 74GW last year driven by the increasingly-attractive prices for the technology, according to a Department of Energy (DoE) report.
Annual installations increased by 77% in 2015 to 8.6GW compared with the previous year to make wind power the most-deployed electricity source in the country, the 2015 Wind Technologies Market Report said.
More than 4300 utility-scale turbines were installed across 64 projects in 20 states last year, bringing the total fleet to more than 48,500.
This has boosted jobs in the industry by about 15,000 to a total of 88,000, DoE said.
The report said 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 country.
Larger and more robust wind turbines are also enabling significantly greater wind project productivity in new projects, it added.
Turbines with more than 100kW already meet about 5.6% of US end-use electricity demand in an average year, DoE said.
“Sustained low wind energy prices and solid growth in installations helped make 2015 one of the best years for our nation’s renewable energy market,” US Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Friedman said.
Image: MorgueFile
