And at a 100-meter hub height and 30% capacity factor, the potential is even higher, with 12,125 GW of wind capacity generating 44.7 million GWh per year of wind power, or about 20% more than at the 80-meter hub height.
Several states benefit from the updated figures, as Indiana, Ohio, and Oregon moved onto the list of the top 20 windiest states for the first time. To put the figures in perspective, the current U.S. installed wind power capacity is only 35 GW. See the wind maps and the table of results (Excel 127 KB) on DOE's Wind Powering America Web site, as well as the AWEA press release.
New Solar Manufacturing Plants Coming to Four States
The Dow Chemical Company has picked Midland, Michigan as the site for the first full-scale production facility for its Dow Powerhouse solar shingle, if the company obtains sufficient local, state, and federal funding.
That became more likely on February 25, when the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) awarded $61.3 million in tax credits over 15 years to Dow for a variety of projects, including the manufacturing plant.
The proposed facility will produce solar shingles that can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingles. The devices employ low-cost, thin-film solar modules made from copper indium gallium diselenide, or CIGS. The CIGS materials are deposited on a flexible stainless steel substrate by Global Solar Energy, which confirmed that its solar modules can convert 13.2% of the sunlight hitting them into electricity, setting a record for thin-film, flexible solar modules.
Dow is already manufacturing solar shingles in a small-scale market development plant in Midland, thanks to a DOE grant of $20 million awarded in 2007 under the Solar America Initiative Pathways Program. The full-scale plant could be operational by 2014, bringing more than 1,200 jobs to the area. See the press releases from Dow and MEDC.
The Dow news follows several announcements of new solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing facilities. China's Suntech Power, the world's largest manufacturer of crystalline silicon PV modules, announced in January that it would build a manufacturing plant in Goodyear, Arizona. The 30 MW plant will be able to grow to more than 120 MW.
In November 2009, Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell announced that Heliosphera US would build a thin-film solar plant in Philadelphia's Navy Yard, creating 400 jobs. The company received a $49 million incentive package of loans and grants.
And SolarWorld announced in October 2009 that it would add another solar module assembly line at its manufacturing plant in Hillsboro, Oregon. The addition will make it the first fully integrated crystalline silicon PV plant in the Americas, from polysilicon rock to finished solar modules. SolarWorld completed its 480,000-square-foot factory in 2008; an adjacent 210,000-square-foot building will house the 350 MW module assembly line. See the press releases from
Suntech, the
State of Pennsylvania, and
SolarWorld.
