Quick Facts • Wind currently provides about 1 percent of America’s electricity. • Wind power was 19 percent of all U.S. electricity generation capacity added in 2006.1 • The U.S. Department of Energy found that generating 20 percent of U.S. electricity from wind by 2030 would avoid 825 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2030, a 25 percent reduction relative to a no-new-wind scenario.2 • Wind power is one of the least expensive renewable energy sources; it has become increasingly cost- competitive with fossil- ueled electricity generation and would be even more with a price on carbon. • The levelized cost of electricity generation3 (including tax incentives) from a new wind farm can range from 6-13 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).4 Actual costs for wind power projects will vary depending on project specifics, and the cost of wind power is sensitive to tax incentives. Background Wind power harnesses the energy generated by he movement of air in the earth’s atmosphere to drive electricity-generating turbines. Although humans have used wind power for hundreds of years, modern turbines reflect significant technological advances over early windmills and even over turbines from just ten or twenty years ago. The wind resource potential varies significantly across the United States with substantial resources found in the Midwest and along the coasts (see Figure 1). Winds generally blow more consistently and at higher speeds at greater heights. As wind speed increase , the amount of available energy increases following a cubic function,5 so a 10 percent increase in speed corresponds to a 33 percent increase in the amount of available energy.6 Modern turbines continue to grow larger and more efficient–two important factors that allow a single turbine to produce more sable energy. Improved materials and design have allowed for larger rotor blades and overall improvements in efficiency (measured as total energy production per unit of swept rotor area,7 given in kilowatt-hours per square meter) and greater gross generation…

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