Wind Energy

The latest market report from the American Wind Energy Association, released this month, shows a 45% expansion in the nation's wind generation capacity during 2007, bringing the total to 5,249 megawatts. That comes from 3,188 wind turbines. The detail for wind energy, seldom mentioned by its advocates, is that until the generated electricity can be stored, generating capacity from other sources must be available to take over when the wind stops blowing. 

No new wind generating projects were completed in New Mexico during 2007, the report says. New Mexico has 496 megawatts of wind generation capacity, good for tenth place nationally. Oklahoma ranked ninth with 689 megawatts.