Energy Department Releases New Wind Report, Examines Future of Industry

Present Day to 2050, Report Quantifies the Economic and Social Benefits of Robust Wind Energy Growth

WASHINGTON – In support of the President’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to diversify our nation’s power supplies, the Energy Department today released a new report looking at the future of wind power through 2050 and the economic benefits that come with a robust wind industry. The report, Wind Vision: A New Era for Wind Power in the United States, confirms that with technological advancements driving projected cost reductions, in combination with continued siting and transmission development, wind power can be economically deployed to provide renewable power in all 50 states.

The report highlights the importance of wind in the nation’s energy portfolio and how critical it is to advance wind’s position in the energy marketplace to maintain the nation’s existing wind manufacturing infrastructure and economic benefits. The report includes a roadmap that defines actions needed to realize the substantial economic and social benefits of a robust wind energy future. Through continued cost reductions and further investments in wind energy systems, wind power is projected to be directly competitive with conventional energy technologies within the next decade.

“Every year, wind becomes cost competitive in more states, and this wind vision report shows that all 50 states could have utility-scale energy by 2050,” said White House Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Dan Utech.  “The United States is uniquely poised to accelerate development of this important resource and technology, and the report will help us continue to build on the strong progress we’ve already made.”

In 2013, an estimated total of more than 50,000 American jobs were supported by wind investments. The report projects that wind could support more than 600,000 jobs by 2050 in industries such as construction, engineering, transportation, manufacturing, operations, maintenance, and supporting services.

The report also highlights the public health and environmental benefits of wind today and into the future. As a clean energy source, wind power could displace more than 12.3 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, equating to a global economic value of $400 billion. Additionally, growth in the wind sector could lower the cumulative electric sector expenditures by $149 billion by 2050.

“I’m happy to report that today, wind energy is at the cusp of cost-parity with other forms of energy that we use widely in our economy,” said Under Secretary for Science and Energy Lynn Orr. “The Department of Energy is prepared to take it all the way to the finish line.”

The Energy Department has supported research and development that has helped the wind industry install more than 60 gigawatts of wind power capacity–enough to power 16 million homes–and has helped decrease the cost of wind energy by more than 90 percent. While the wind industry is maturing, many future actions and efforts remain critical to further advancement of domestic wind energy. Continued technology development is essential to reducing costs in the near term and maximizing savings in the long term. This report not only sets the scene for the future of the wind industry, but also defines a roadmap of actions the wind energy industry and the research community can take to optimize wind’s potential contribution to the nation’s energy portfolio.

The nine core “action areas” in the report’s roadmap range from technology advancement to workforce development, and are designed to help remove hurdles to wind power deployment, while leveraging and boosting U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and our domestic clean energy workforce. Carrying out the roadmap actions could also reduce the cost of implementing future policy measures.

For more information on the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or the Wind Program specifically, please visit www.energy.gov/eere. For the Department’s 2008 report entitled 20% Wind Energy by 2030, click here. To learn more about the Wind Vision, click here.