Wind Energy

US Wind Energy Market

Since early recorded history, people have been harnessing the energy of the wind. Wind energy propelled boats along the Nile River as early as 5000 B.C. By 200 B.C., simple windmills in China were pumping water, while vertical-axis windmills with woven reed sails were grinding grain in Persia and the Middle East.

New ways of using the energy of the wind eventually spread around the world. By the 11th century, people in the Middle East were using windmills extensively for food production; returning merchants and crusaders carried this idea back to Europe. The Dutch refined the windmill and adapted it for draining lakes and marshes in the Rhine River Delta. When settlers took this technology to the New World in the late 19th century, they began using windmills to pump water for farms and ranches, and later, to generate electricity for homes and industry.

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. In wind turbines, wind energy is directly used to crush grain or to pump water. At the end of 2009, worldwide capacity of wind turbines was 160 gigawatts. Although wind currently produces just over 1% of world-wide electricity use, it accounts for approximately 19% of electricity production in Denmark, nine percent in Spain and Portugal, and six percent in Germany and the Republic of Ireland (2007 data). Globally, wind power generation increased more than fivefold between 2000 and 2007.

The report on Wind Power in the US is a complete analysis of the wind energy industry in United States. The report analyzes the technology, barriers to the development of wind energy in US, regulatory framework, and a profile of the major industry players.

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