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The Statue of Liberty is now lit with wind power, a powerful, shining symbol of how wind energy works for our economy, environment, and energy security. [The U.S. National Parks Service has contracted with Pepco Energy Services to purchase 27 million kilowatt-hours of wind power to cover the electricity needs for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island museum over a period of three years.] The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) is providing the following facts and comments to highlight this announcement: --Wind farms across the U.S. will generate enough electricity this year (about 25 billion kWh) to light up more than 2,700 Statues of Liberty. --In 2006, the U.S. wind energy industry will install an estimated 3,000 megawatts of wind power capacity, enough to light an additional 900 Statues of Liberty or to power 800,000 homes annually. --Wind power is now a mainstream option for electricity generation. “I recognize the importance of wind power,” said President George Bush on February 20, 2006. “It’s possible we could generate up to 20% of our electricity needs through wind.” Twenty percent is the share that nuclear power provides today. The Statue of Liberty is just the latest example of how wind energy works for the nation’s economy, environment and energy security: --Wind energy development creates jobs, and will inject $4 billion worth of investment into the U.S. economy in 2006. Several high-tech wind turbine manufacturing facilities opened in the U.S. in the past year, including in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Tennessee. In rural communities where wind projects are installed, farmers earn $2,000 to $4,000 or more per year per turbine installed on their land, while continuing to grow crops up to the foot of the turbines. --Wind is a clean, renewable energy source that does not emit any pollution, or cause mining and drilling for fuel to run power plants. The electricity generated in 2006 by America’s wind farms will displace some 15 million tons of carbon dioxide, the leading global warming pollutant. Over 5 million acres of forest would be needed to absorb that much carbon dioxide. --Wind is a domestic, inexhaustible, energy source that reduces our need to import fuels for electricity generation. Moreover, wind plants consist of small individual turbines that cannot be easily damaged at the same time, do not pose a secondary threat to the public (such as explosions or release of radioactivity), and are easy to replace. The American wind energy industry commends the National Park Service for selecting clean, renewable wind energy to power one of America’s foremost symbols of freedom.
AWEA, formed in 1974, is the national trade association of the U.S. wind energy industry. ### |
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© 2006 by the American Wind Energy Association. |
