Wind industry is booming in the U.S., 1524 new turbines installed last year

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(NaturalNews) Wind-power electric generating capacity increased dramatically in the United States in 2006, according to the recently released annual rankings of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

AWEA reports that 1,524 new wind-power turbines were installed across the country, representing a total generating capacity of 2,454 megawatts and an investment of $4 billion. This brings the country's total generating capacity to more than 11,600 megawatts, or enough to power 3 million average households.

Texas leads all states in terms of wind-power capacity, with more than 2,700 megawatts worth of turbines installed and another 1,000 under construction. It is followed closely by California, with 2,361 megawatts. The next three top states lag significantly behind California and Texas in capacity. Iowa comes in third with 936 megawatts, followed by Minnesota (895 megawatts) and Washington, which has surpassed Oklahoma for fifth place with 818 megawatts of wind-power capacity.

Xcel Energy has overtaken Southern California Edison as the utility with the most power supplied to customers from wind, at 1,323 megawatts compared to Edison's 1,026. These companies are followed by MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., newly in third place with 861 megawatts of wind power, and then by Pacific Gas & Electric (793 megawatts) and TXU Energy (705 megawatts).

The top five owners of wind farms (which sell the power to utilities, who then sell it to customers), are FPL Energy (4,016 megawatts), PPM Energy (1,058 megawatts), MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. (593 megawatts), Babcock & Brown (559 megawatts) and Goldman Sachs/Horizon Wind Energy (452 megawatts).

The AWEA rankings also report the country's largest wind farms and the congressional districts with the most installed wind-power capacity.

Wind power is a booming industry around the world, with electricity generation more than quadrupling since 2000. Worldwide electric generating capacity from wind currently stands at more than 74,000 megawatts, representing less than 1 percent of the world's electricity use.

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