What will make Wind a bigger driver?
According to American Wind Energy Association, there is 25,170 MW of installed generation in the United States (overtaking Germany in 2008 - 23,902MX) and 4,451 MW under Construction in the U.S.
With wind turbines now getting to the 5MW size and with international manufacturers coming into our country the massive growth of the wind turbine industry is taking place now.
U.S. wind power capacity has grown by an average of 32% each year for the last 5 years. Wind power provided 42% of the entire new U.S. generating capacity added in 2008, up from 35% in 2007.
Nearly 48 billion kWh of electricity was generated by wind power in the U.S. in 2008 - enough for the equivalent of 4.5 million average American homes.
With the right government policies, Wind power could provide at least 20% of the nations electricity by 2030.
In comparison to Nuclear Power we should not rule it out of the picture for multiple forms of energy our going to have to be with us for years to come but with the many environmental issues that have faced Nuclear power over these past years I do not see expanded nuclear power construction taking place in the near future. Nuclear power presently supplies about 20% of the electricity in the United States but due to high cost and worries over what could happen there has been no construction of new reactors in the U.S. since 1979.
FYI: U.S. News and World Report April 2009 has numerous article addressing “Can America Prosper in the New Green Economy.