U.S. Wind Power Increases by 81.6 Percent Since Last Year

Sort of. The executive summary of the September 2008 Electric Power Monthly, released a few days ago by the Energy Information Administration — a statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy — states that "Wind-powered generation [in June 2008] was 81.6 percent higher than it was in June 2007." Holy cow! However, it goes on, "Even with this significant increase, the contribution of wind-powered generation to the national total was only 1.2 percent in June 2008." Does it constitute a baby step in the right direction nonetheless? Maybe. The statistics are a snapshot of two chunks of time: the months of June in 2007 and 2008. Increasing the aperture gives a more complete picture. In the first six months of 2008, national power generation (which was up a point over 2007) sources break down like this:

• coal-fired plants increased by 0.8 percent — contributing 48.9 percent of total U.S. electric power
• nuclear was down 0.5 percent — comprising 19.5 percent of America's electricity
• generation from petroleum liquids and coke, down 42.9 percent (no surprise there) — making up just 1.1 percent of the total power picture in the states
• natural gas-fired generation was up 4.4 percent (a bit unexpected) — 19.8 percent of the national generation
• conventional hydroelectric, up 3.3 percent — a 7.3 percent contribution
• wind generation, year-to-date, rose 47.8 percent (windmills in Texas and Colorado generated 57.5 percent of that increase) — this and other renewables including biomass, geothermal, solar, and other miscellaneous energy sources comprised the remaining 7.3 percent