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)
