A Mighty Wind: Integrating Wind Energy into the Electric Power System Is Already Generating Excitement

In the spring of 2008, the U.S. department of Energy released a report titled "20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply." The report examined a scenario for producing 20% of the country's electrical energy supply from domestic wind energy resources, a level that has already been reached in some parts of Europe. While installing 300 GW of wind energy by 2030 would require changes to traditional business practices, the scenario was found to be feasible. By the fall of 2008, the United States had surpassed 20,000 MW of installed wind power capacity, and the country has installed as much wind capacity in the last two years as it did in the previous two decades. Even though wind still supplies less than 2% of U.S. electrical energy, there is a strong sense of optimism and excitement associated with wind turbine technology that has not been seen in the electric power business for quite a while.