Tom Kiernan: Wind power makes waves in California

Over the past several years, American wind power has made great strides.

Today, we have enough clean, homegrown wind power installed to power more than 15.5 million average American homes.

As the birthplace of utility-scale wind power decades ago, California can take its share of the credit for wind energy achieving record-breaking growth today.

What’s next?

The wind industry’s annual tradeshow, Windpower Conference & Exhibition on May 5-8 in Las Vegas, will be a major indicator.

The U.S. wind industry is the midst of the biggest construction boom ever and boasts a product that is 43 percent cheaper than it was four years ago. But the industry still faces uncertain support from policymakers despite overwhelming public support.

This story is playing out across California’s energy economy as it is nationwide.

California led the world in wind energy development through much of the 1980s and 1990s.

Coachella Valley and Altamont Pass were home to the first wind farms in the U.S and today the state remains a national leader in the wind industry.

It ranks second in the U.S. for installations, second for wind industry jobs and boasts 19 wind-related manufacturing facilities.

California has enough wind energy installed to supply power to 1.9 million average Californian homes and wind energy now accounts for 6 percent of the state’s electricity consumption.

All this growth has also come with tremendous economic benefits.

Capital investment in the state stands at $11.7 billion and the industry supports up to 4,000 well-paying jobs. California farmers, ranchers and landowners especially appreciate the drought-resistant cash crop, with the wind industry paying $27 million annually to lease land.

Drought is a real concern in the state and water consumption savings from wind projects in California total nearly 3 billion gallons per year and counting.

The wind power installed here will also avoid more than 7.8 million metric tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions when assuming the power would otherwise be produced from fossil fuel-based energy sources.

Put differently, going with wind energy is the equivalent of taking 1.4 million cars off the road in the Golden State.

California’s government also has been doing its part to make smart investments in wind energy.

The passage of the 2002 California Renewable Portfolio Standard targets and their increase in 2009 by executive order requires utilities to reach the 33 percent renewables target by 2020.

This, along with other local and federal incentives, has encouraged California businesses to invest in the wind industry.

Regions like the Coachella Valley, next to the San Gorgonio Pass, have been taking advantage of these investments for decades.

Listed as one the valley’s economic attributes, wind-farming was developed back in the 1980s and now there’s more than 680 megawatts installed, enough to power more than 260,000 average California homes.

And there’s a lot more room for California wind power to grow.

According to data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, California’s onshore wind potential has enough to power roughly 34 million average-size homes and meet more than 40 percent of the state’s current electricity needs.

The march toward converting potential into reality is already under way.

A record number of wind projects were under construction at the end of 2013, nationally more than 12,000 megawatts across 100 wind projects are in the process of getting built.

Windpower 2014 in Las Vegas will highlight this flurry of business and construction activity and California’s part in it.

Californians comprise 12 percent of Windpower registrants are from the Golden State, which suggests the state will be a hot spot for the American wind industry for years to come.

Tom Kiernan is chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association, the national trade association for the U.S. wind industry.

He can be contact through his office at LNorth@AWEA.org