Abstract: . . .  political support for wind across the Midwest and West. ö New York and Pennsylvania are using state purchases of renewable electricity as a means of boosting clean power sources. New York Gov. George Pataki (R) has ordered state agencies to buy 10% of their electricity from green sources by 2005, 20% by 2010, while Pennsylvania’s state government is currently purchasing green power for 5% of its supply. ö Emerging research on actual grid integration costs indicates that these are minimal, and has begun to turn the tide on the onerous non-cost-based penalties discussed above. It remains to be seen what the balance of 2002 will bring, but the momentum that was so evident in 2001 has now been restored by passage of the PTC extension. If a long-term PTC is adopted and other favorable steps are taken at the federal and state levels, the outlook for the U.S. wind energy market beyond 2003 will be extremely promising. Internationally, some 6,500 new megawatts (MW) of new wind energy generating capacity were installed worldwide in 2001, amounting to annual sales of about $7 billion. This is the largest increase ever in global wind energy installations, well above the capacity added in 2000 (3,800 MW) and 1999 (3,900 MW). The world’s wind energy generating capacity at the close of 2001 stood at about 24,000 MW, a 37% increase over the amount in place a year earlier. Germany alone set a world and national record of more than 2,600 MW of new generating capacity installed during the year. Wind is reliably providing 10% to 25% and more of electricity supply in several regions of Germany and Spain, and meets over 15% of Denmark’s current power needs.  . . .
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