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The wind energy industry currently supports about 85,000 jobs and based on Denise Bode, the CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, the alternative energy industry will be able to support 500,000 jobs by 2030. Most of these would be wind energy jobs. In order for this to occur, however, we would need a supportive national energy policy in place.
A U.S. United states doe Study states "The U.S. possesses sufficient and affordable wind resources to obtain a minimum of 20% of its electricity from wind through the year 2030." According to Bode, the wind industry is on the right track to meet that projection. One of the critical issues to overcome, however, is the lack of a domestic manufacturing base to aid the development of wind generation at this pace.
The US currently has about 35,000 MW of installed wind energy, and is growing in a pace around 10,000 MW each year. The industry was fairly flat for a number of years until the Renewable Electricity Standards (RES) was implemented and really boosted activity. This policy helped to attract more manufacturing which will help lessen the costs of creating wind turbine components. As we add more manufacturing in the U.S., we will continue to reduce those costs. As costs to construct wind energy facilities drops, this helps to further support additional purchase of wind energy projects and boost the growth of wind energy jobs.
