The clean electricity generated by the 10,000 MW of wind power installed in the U.S. today can...

• Power 2.5 million U.S. homes, on average;
• Allow plug-in hybrid car owners to travel 109 billion miles;
• Save 600 billion gallons of water from being pulled from our nation’s aquifers; and
• Power Ireland, Peru, or over 150 countries around the world.

10,000 MW of wind power installed in the U.S. today can generate as much electricity as . . .

• 13.4 million tons of coal, or one thousand mile-long coal trains,
• 4.5 million barrels of oil per year, and
• 252 Bcf of natural gas, or about 3.5% of the natural gas used for electricity generation.

The 10,000 MW fleet of wind power installed in the U.S. today can . . .

• Provide $20 million - $40 million in lease payments to American landowners; and
• Provide long-term, 10-year jobs to about 2,500 people in the U.S.

If the power being generated by the 10,000 MW of wind power installed in the U.S. were being generated by the conventional U.S. generation mix . . .

• 16 million additional metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) would have been emitted, as much as could be absorbed by 9,400 square miles of forest, an area about the size of Vermont;
• 73,000 additional short tons of acid-rain causing sulfur dioxide (SO2) would have to be abated to acheive the national Acid Rain Program goals;
• 27,000 additional short tons of smog-causing nitrous oxide (NOx) would have been emitted; and
• 760 additional pounds of mercury would be polluting our streams and rivers.

Although 10,000 MW is an important milestone, wind power provides a small share of the nation’s electricity. The Energy Information Agency reports that 985,285 MW of all kinds of generating capacity is installed in the U.S. Today, we are providing less than 1% of the nation’s power. However, wind power is one of the fastest-growing electricity sources today, and can be expected to be an important source of our power needs in the future. The U.S. first started installing electricity-generating wind power in the early 1980s. The country had 1,000 MW of wind power installed by 1985; 2,000 MW installed by 1999; and 5,000 MW by 2003.

The only other countries around the world that have more wind power installed are Germany (19,140 MW as of the end of June), and Spain (10,728 MW).

AWEA expects the U.S. to pass the 15,000 MW mark by the end of 2007 and can have 25,000 MW installed by the end of 2010, with the proper policies in place. At this growth rate, the U.S. could have 100,000 MW installed by 2020, which would provide the nation with approximately 6% of its future power needs, about as much as hydropower provides today.

The more wind power, the better for our energy security. Wind power is an inexhaustible, domestic energy source that can be tapped on a large scale: America’s wind resource potential is vast--theoretically more than twice enough to meet current U.S. electricity supply. President Bush said earlier this year that wind could meet 20% of the country’s electricity supply.

If wind power were providing 20% of our nation's power today . . .

• It could provide as much power as is used by 75 million U.S. homes, on average, about as much as nuclear power is providing today;
• It would be producing as much power as almost every other country around the world, excluding only China, Russia, and Japan;
• American landowners would be receiving $600 million - $1.2 billion in lease payments;
• About 75,000 people in the U.S. would be working in the wind industry;
• It would producing as much power as 400 million tons of coal, 35,000 mile-long coal trains, 135 million barrels of oil; and 7,560 Bcf of natural gas could produce each year.

If wind power acounted for 20% of our nation's power today. . .

• 480 million additional tons of carbon dioxide would not be emitted each year, as much as could be absorbed by 282,000 square miles of forest, an area about the size of Texas;
• 2 million additional short tons of acid-rain causing sulfur dioxide would not have to be abated each year to achieve the national Acid Rain Program goals;
• 810,000 additional short tons of smog-causing nitrous oxide (NOx) would not be emitted each year; and
• 22,800 additional pounds of mercury would not be emitted each year.

Assumptions:

- 31% average capacity factor assumed for entire turbine fleet.

- Average annual household consumption ( U.S.) = 10,656 kWh.

- A plug-in hybrid car can travel 4 miles per kWh.

- To generate the same amount of electricity as a single 1-MW wind turbine using either fossil fuels or nuclear power requires, on average, withdrawing roughly 60 million gallons of water a year from streams, rivers, or aquifers, of which nearly 1 million gallons is lost to evaporation; generating the same amount with hydropower means the loss of approximately 50 million gallons a year to evaporation.

- Due to national regulation on SO2, there is a cap on how much would have been emitted, but the costs for adhering to the cap would have been higher.

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