Well supported???????? opinion. Hard to dispute your facts.
Energy Dept. Reports: U.S. Wind Energy Production and Manufacturing Reaches Record Highs | Department of Energy
The Energy Department released two new reports today showcasing record growth across the U.S. wind market -- increasing America's share of clean, renewable energy and supporting tens of thousands of jobs nationwide. According to these reports,
the United States continues to be one of the world's largest and fastest growing wind markets. In 2012, wind energy became the number one source of new U.S. electricity generation capacity for the first time representing 43 percent of all new electric additions and accounting for $25 billion in U.S. investment.
Last year, over 13 gigawatts (GW) of new wind power capacity were added to the U.S. grid nearly double the wind capacity deployed in 2011. This tremendous growth helped America's total wind power capacity surpass 60 GW at the end of 2012 representing enough capacity to power more than 15 million homes each year, or as many homes as in California and Washington state combined.
American wind power reaches major power generation milestones in 2013
At the same time, the proportion of wind turbine components such as towers, blades, and gears made in America has increased dramatically. The report estimates seventy-two percent of the wind turbine equipment installed in the U.S. last year was made by domestic manufacturers, nearly tripling from 25 percent in 2006-2007.
The geographic diversity and abundance of American wind installations is a reflection of the United States' strong wind resource. In a 2010 study, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported over 10 million MW of wind resource in the U.S., enough to power the equivalent of the nation's total electricity needs 10 times over.
The wind energy industry started 2014 with a record 12,000 MW of wind project capacity under construction and will deliver even more clean and affordable energy to our nation's electricity generation portfolio.
Renewables Provide 88 Percent of New US Electrical Generating Capacity in May 2014
You must have an unorthodox definition of dead?:confused2:
Wind Farm Bird Deaths vs Fossil Fuel & Nuclear Power Bird Deaths | CleanTechnica
November 26th, 2013 by Zachary Shahan
This article was jointly written by one of CleanTechnic's readers and Zachary Shahan.
It痴 a shame when a beautiful (or even an ugly) animal dies. It痴 a shame that wind turbines do indeed kill birds. However, every source of electricity we have kills some number of birds. And while solar panels may fare better than anything else, it痴 actually clear (and uplifting) that wind turbines fare better than nuclear or fossil-fueled power plants on this front.
Here痴 some info on bird kills per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity produced:
Wind farms kill roughly 0.27 birds per GWh.
Nuclear plants kill about 0.6 birds per GWh. (2.2x wind)
Fossil-fueled power stations kill about 9.4 birds per GWh. (34.8x wind)
Its so easy to use Google to get a few facts. (or at least present information that can be accepted or challenged) Opinions are ok but they carry almost no weight in a dispute no matter how strongly you believe.
Loren
