A burst of new wind farm announcements in the first quarter of 2019 propelled the total volume of U.S. wind power construction and development activity to a record level, according to the newly released “U.S. Wind Industry First Quarter 2019 Market Report” from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
The AWEA report reveals that U.S. project developers announced new wind farms with a total capacity of 6,146 MW in the first quarter of 2019, which is more than the capacity of all the currently operational wind farms in California.
The additional capacity brings the U.S. construction and advanced development pipeline to a new record of 39,161 MW, representing an 11% increase over the previous quarter.
“With nearly 40,000 MW in development, America’s largest source of renewable energy generating capacity is on a path to grow by 40 percent in the near term,” notes Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA. “In doing so, we’ll create thousands of additional American jobs and new economic opportunities for factory towns and rural communities across the country.”