Wind power (energía de viento)

By
Jeff Siegel

The American Wind Energy Association released its annual industry report yesterday.

According to the report, in 2008, the U.S. surpassed Germany as the country with the largest amount of installed wind power capacity. This, after more than 8,500 megawatts of new wind power increased the nation's cumulative total to more than 25,300 MW - representing a growth of about 50 percent.

Based on this growth rate, and assuming long-term policy support, this puts the U.S. on a trajectory to generate 20 percent of our electricity from wind energy by 2030. This is a massive jump, based on the 1.25 percent that was generated by installed wind projects at the end of 2008 - and a massive opportunity for investors.

This latest report shows GE continuing to run the turbine show, boasting 43 percent of newly installed capacity in 2008. Vestas (CO:VWS) came in second, Siemens (NYSE:SI) in third, and Suzlon (NSE:SUZLON) and Gamesa (MCE:GAM) rounding out fourth and fifth.

As far as developers are concerned, NextEra Energy (which used to be FPL Energy) owns the most wind energy assets, boasting a total of 6,290 MW - or about 25 percent of all installed capacity.