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With the calendar year winding down, very nearly everyone, this site included, are putting out their year-in-review content—and the American Wind Energy Association is no different. It’s pretty easy to get down on US renewable energy policy if you’re just paying attention to the nonsense coming out of legislators bought and paid for by the polluting class, but there were some truly great milestones in US wind power in 2011.
Just the top two milestones AWEA highlights are worth shouting about:
1) Five US States Now Get 20% of Their Electricity From Wind Power, with Iowa and South Dakota the latest members of that club. I don’t know if objectively, and in light of the needed goal of all our electricity coming from renewables, you can state that 20% of electricity from wind power is, as AWEA touts, “huge” market penetration, but it is true that its not just Europe where wind power is growing strongly.
2) Xcel Energy Shatters Wind Barrier With 50% At One Time. It’s been a while since we’ve touted such a large one-day utilization of wind power.
Investor-owned utility Xcel Energy set a wind power world record on the morning of October 6, when subsidiary Public Service Co. of Colorado got 55.6% of the electricity on its system at one time from wind power.
