DOE report: Wind power can provide 20% of US power needs by 2030

A new forecasting report from the U.S. Department of Energy asserts wind power could generate 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs by 2030.

The scenario, “while ambitious, could be feasible if the significant challenges” identified in the report are overcome.
More than 300 gigawatts of wind power capacity would be needed to meet the DOE’s 20 percent scenario, up from 11.6 gigawatts in mid-2007. Wind turbines currently generate a little more than 1 percent of the country’s total capacity. One gigawatt is enough to power roughly 650,000 homes.

To reach that level, the wind industry would have to quicken its pace of installations more than fivefold by 2018, to 16 gigawatts a year, up from 3 gigawatts a year today, and then sustain that pace through 2030.

It won’t be easy. To reach that level would require improved turbine technology, significant changes in transmission systems to deliver power through the electrical grid, and larger expanded markets to buy the power, the report says.

Business Weekly