World Wind Turbines To Cross 300,000 Megawatt Mark

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Wind turbines are here to stay. They are increasing in numbers every day, and industry figures show that the amount of energy they are able to generate has reached tremendous levels.

The 19th century belonged to coal, the 20th to oil, and the 21st century belongs to clean energy, with wind energy being one of the foundations of that.

“This is the big one, the centerpiece, the dominant source of energy in the new economy is wind,” believes Lester Brown, a world-leading environmental analyst.

Wind turbines on farm via Shutterstock
Wind turbines on farm via Shutterstock

Jobs are steadily improving with the wind industry as well. Here’s one uplifting example: Jeff Metz was not a Green. He was a Republican in Michigan, the state hit the hardest in the recession. But he is a clean energy hero. He re-hired someone for every job that was eliminated (during the recession) to work for his wind manufacturing company. He tuned into what the industry needed, and in doing so, brought jobs back to the jobless. Problems with energy subsidies and tax breaks in the US are still disturbing (in need of attention). The wind industry was particularly attacked by Republican congresspeople in the past year or so, despite local-level support for wind power by common Republicans. It’s worth noting that these problems turned this hardworking and enterprising entrepreneur from Republican to something else. He is voting differently now.

Let’s get to the 300,000 megawatt (MW) or 300 gigawatt (GW) story noted in the headline.

Peter Sennekamp, media officer for the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), says: “Worldwide installed wind power will exceed 300 gigawatts of power capacity this year.” The projection is based off of data collected by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).



For a little more fun, the following video by Peter Sinclair and accompanying short article by Thomas Schueneman emphasize why wind is becoming an essential agent of change. The “Century of Wind Energy” is upon us. Wind power prices have dropped dramatically. Current prices make it competitive with all sources of energy. As Schueneman, Metz, and Brown believe, wind is the cornerstone of the new energy economy.

This is a paradigm shift, and it is also an economic shift capable of bringing jobs and the US middle class back at a highly needed time. And what a great video capturing all that!


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

Cynthia Shahan

Cynthia Shahan, started writing after previously doing research and publishing work on natural birth practices. Words can be used improperly depending on the culture you are in. (Several unrelated publications) She has a degree in Education, Anthropology, Creative Writing, and was tutored in Art as a young child thanks to her father the Doctor. Pronouns: She/Her

Cynthia Shahan has 947 posts and counting. See all posts by Cynthia Shahan