In 2006, a panel explored a modeled energy scenario in which wind would provide 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030. Their official report estimates impacts and discusses specific needs and outcomes.

This study presents options to speed up the deployment of wind power, both onshore and offshore, until 2050. It builds on IRENA’s global roadmap to scale up renewables and meet climate goals.

Meet Michael Skelly, the man boldly harnessing wind energy that could power America’s future and break its fossil fuel dependence in this “essential, compelling look into the future of the nation’s power grid” (Bryan Burrough, author of The Big Rich). The United States is in the midst of an energy transition. We have fallen out of love with dirty fossil fuels and want to embrace renewable energy sources like wind and solar. A transition from a North American power grid that is powered mostly by fossil fuels to one that is predominantly clean is feasible, but it would require a massive building spree—wind turbines, solar panels, wires, and billions of dollars would be needed. Enter Michael Skelly, an infrastructure builder who began working on wind energy in 2000 when many considered the industry a joke. Eight years later, Skelly helped build the second largest wind power company in the United States—and sold it for $2 billion. Wind energy was no longer funny—it was well on its way to powering more than 6% of electricity in the United States. Award-winning journalist, Russel Gold tells Skelly’s story, which in many ways is the story of our nation’s evolving relationship with renewable energy. Gold illustrates how Skelly’s company, Clean Line Energy, conceived the idea for a new power grid that would allow sunlight where abundant to light up homes in the cloudy states thousands of miles away, and take wind from the Great Plains to keep air conditioners running in Atlanta. Thrilling, provocative, and important, Superpower is a fascinating look at America’s future.

Relates the history of the efforts to capture the power of wind for electricity, from the first European windmills to California's wind farms of the late twentieth century.

Today's wind energy industry is at a crossroads. Global economic instability has threatened or eliminated many financial incentives that have been important to the development of specific markets. Now more than ever, this essential element of the world energy mosaic will require innovative research and strategic collaborations to bolster the industry as it moves forward. This text details topics fundamental to the efficient operation of modern commercial farms and highlights advanced research that will enable next-generation wind energy technologies. The book is organized into three sections, Inflow and Wake Influences on Turbine Performance, Turbine Structural Response, and Power Conversion, Control and Integration. In addition to fundamental concepts, the reader will be exposed to comprehensive treatments of topics like wake dynamics, analysis of complex turbine blades, and power electronics in small-scale wind turbine systems.

This book provides a detailed roadmap of technical, economic, and institutional actions by the wind industry, the wind research community, and others to optimize wind's potential contribution to a cleaner, more reliable, low-carbon, domestic energy generation portfolio, utilizing U.S. manu-facturing and a U.S. workforce. The roadmap is intended to be the beginning of an evolving, collaborative, and necessarily dynamic process. It thus suggests an approach of continual updates at least every two years, informed by its analysis activities. Roadmap actions are identified in nine topical areas, introduced below.