Halleluja: The Clean, Green Renewable Future Is Upon Us!!!

The American Wind Energy Association released its annual market report for 2014 today. As expected, most of the report’s findings are quite positive, with “more wind power capacity under construction at the end of 2014 than at the end of any other year.” Over 100 U.S. wind power projects totalling 12,700 MW were built last year. There are now over 65,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity in the United States.

The AWEA report was not all sunshine and daisies however, noting that development-chilling uncertainty about the production tax credit continues: “The lapse of the PTC at the end of 2012 drove a 92% drop in installations in 2013” and “PTC uncertainty continues with an extension through the end of 2014 that came only two weeks before the end of the year.”

Among the report’s other optimistic findings were that the cost of onshore wind energy has dropped by over 50 percent between 2009 and 2013, and that wind energy was the largest source of new electricity generation in the United States in 2014.

The AWEA report is grounded in graphic analysis based on concrete wind energy development figures, which sets it apart from predictive renewable energy studies that are sometimes promoted under strikingly upbeat headlines. In general though, the renewable news is good. Here is just a sampling of rosy headlines from the renewable energy news media that came out in the past few days:

• North American Wind Industry Set For 55 GW Capacity Between 2015 And 2024
• 80% Renewables By 2050 In US, Says NREL
• Solar & Wind Power Prices Often Lower Than Fossil Fuel Power Prices
• 2015 A “Watershed Year” For US Power Sector As Emissions Fall To Two-Decade Low
• US Business Says Hello To US Wind Energy, Goodbye To Fossil Fuels
• California Power Grid Seen Able to Handle 100% Renewables

Take that Pat Sajak!