Wind Powering America has three key dimensions: a regional focus, stakeholders, and activities. Use the navigation to the left to find the information that you need based on how you are looking for information.
Wind Powering America supports states with good wind resources but little wind development. State pages provide information specifically for a given state such as anemometer loan program information, wind working group contacts, a small wind consumer's guide, a wind resource map, news, events, and publications.
The regional section of Wind Powering America currently focuses on New England. The Program plans to develop in-depth information for other regions of the United States in the future.
Rural America is economically stressed and traditional agricultural incomes are seriously threatened. Wind development in these regions offers one of the most promising "crops" of the 21st century. The agricultural community pages provide information about large wind, wind farms, the Farm Bill, and more.
Wind energy is not only compatible with Native American cultural and spiritual beliefs, it provides a means to achieve sustainable Tribal economies. The Native American pages provides anemometer loan program information, a quarterly Native American Wind Interest Group (NAWIG) Newsletter, case studies, interviews with Native Americans who have installed wind power, and a video documenting the installation of the first Native American-owned, large, utility-scale wind turbine in Indian country, Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
Millions of acres of public lands, especially in the western United States, provide new potential sites for wind turbines. The public lands pages discuss assessing the potential for renewable energy on public lands as well as Wind Powering America's assistance to state land offices.
Public power serves local communities, and local development of wind with low-cost financing appears to be competitive with new conventional fossil energy. The public power pages provide news about publically-owned utilities, electric cooperatives, and federal utilities.
Wind Powering America is working to assist schools in lowering their electricity bills and providing information about wind energy to include in their curricula.
Homeowners, farmers and ranchers, and small business owners are increasingly becoming interested in small wind turbines to generate their own electricity. Depending on where you live, the payoff can be substantial. The small wind pages provide a listing of state small wind consumer's guides and links to news, events, and an online clean power estimator that estimates the economic feasibility of installing a small wind turbine in your location.
Achieving the goals of the Wind Powering America program during the next 20 years will create $60 billion in capital investment, provide $1.2 billion in new income, and create 80,000 new jobs. Wind energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the world. The economic development page provides publications and a software model that calculates economic impacts from wind projects.
Wind development activity in the United States is mainly driven by policy mandates in the investor-owned utility community. The policy pages provide information about how federal and state policies play an important role in encouraging wind energy development.
Choosing a proper site for a wind turbine or wind farm is critical to a successful project. The wind siting section provides resources about siting of wind turbines and the Federal Interagency Wind Siting Collaboration, an interagency collaboration formed to support the increased deployment of wind energy.
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