American wind power added jobs over nine times faster than the
country's overall economic growth in 2016, according to the American
Wind Energy Association (AWEA) report recently.
Installing over
8,000 megawatts (MW) of new wind power for a second straight year, the
U.S. industry invested over $14 billion in 2016 in new wind farms built
in rural America.
This supports a record-high 102,500 jobs, the
report entitled 2016 U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report at the
Minnesota State Capitol stated.
CEO of AWEA Tom Kiernan said that
the sector added nearly 15,000 jobs in 2016 alone and brought total wind
industry employment to over 102,000 jobs across all 50 states. Last
year, wind energy became America’s number one source of renewable
generating capacity, further advancing U.S. energy security, he added.
"Bigger,
better technology enables new wind turbines to generate 50 percent more
electricity than those built in 2009, and at 66 percent lower cost,"
Kiernan continued.
The report also indicates that wind energy will widely benefit the U.S. economy, and will be deployed more.
Total U.S. wind capacity reached 82,143 megawatts at the start of 2017, the report underlined.
(Anadolu Agency, 24 Apr,2017)