The U.S. wind industry broke all previous records by installing nearly 10,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity in 2009 (enough to serve over 2.4 million homes), but still lags in manufacturing, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today in its Q4 report. These new projects place wind power neck and neck with natural gas ¹ as the leading source of new electricity generation for the country. Together, the two sources account for about 80% of the new capacity added in the country last year. "The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon, and protecting consumers," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. "But U.S. wind turbine manufacturing - the canary in the mine -- is down compared to last year's levels, and needs long-term policy certainty and market pull in order to grow. We need to set hard targets, in the form of a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), in order to provide the necessary stability for manufacturers to expand their U.S. operations and to seize the historic opportunity we have today to build up a thriving renewable energy industry."

The wind industry's high export figures correspond to a growth of approx. 20 pct. compared to 2007, where the industry exported a total of 4.7 billion Euros of Danish wind turbine technology abroad. This means that the wind power industry exports amounted to 7.2 pct. of the total Danish exports in 2008.The Danish Wind Industry Association has just published the annual industry statistics for 2008 which show that the industry last year had a 5.7 billion Euros export of wind technology and had 28,400 employed in the sector at the end of 2008. Thus 2008 was again a record year for the wind industry and it is now among the biggest export industries in Denmark. Since then the financial crisis has turned the "world upside down" - and 2009 looks far more bleak than just a few months ago. "It went well for the export of Danish energy technology and it went particularly well for the wind industry's exports in 2008 as it accounted for more than 70 pct. of the total Danish exports of energy technology", notes Jan Hylleberg and continues, "It is particularly derived from the fact that Danish suppliers are increasingly exporting components and services to foreign producers. The Danish producers have been global for years. Now the Danish suppliers are greatly after it and it is a trend I think we will continue to see."

Today, the Solar Energy Industries Association released its 2008 U.S. Solar Industry Year in Review, highlighting a third year of record growth. The report notes that 1,265 megawatts (MW) of solar power of all types were installed in 2008, bringing total U.S. solar power capacity up 17 percent to 8,775 MW. The 2008 figure included 342 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV), 139 MWTh (thermal equivalent) of solar water heating, 762 MWTh of pool heating and an estimated 21 MW of solar space heating and cooling.

"Despite severe economic pressures in the United States, demand for solar energy grew tremendously in 2008," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA. "Increasingly, solar energy has proven to be an economic engine for this country, creating thousands of jobs, unleashing billions in investment dollars and building new factories from New Hampshire to Michigan to Oregon."

Rates of growth beat last year's as well, with the grid-tied PV segment leading with a growth rate of 81 percent for the amount of installed power in 2008 (292 MW) over the amount installed in 2007 (161 MW). Solar water heating installation grew at a 50 percent rate in 2008 (139 MWTh) over 2007 (93 MWTh) and pool heating growth slowed by 3 percent in 2008 (762 MWTh) from 2007 (785 MWTh).

The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all previous records in 2008 by installing 8,358 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity (enough to serve over 2 million homes), the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today, even as it warned of an uncertain outlook for 2009 due to the continuing financial crisis.

The massive growth in 2008 swelled the nation's total wind power generating capacity by 50% and channeled an investment of some $17 billion into the economy, positioning wind power as one of the leading sources of new power generation in the country today along with natural gas, AWEA added. At year's end, however, financing for new projects and orders for turbine components slowed to a trickle and layoffs began to hit the wind turbine manufacturing sector.

SunPower Corporation announced yesterday that it has produced a full-scale, five inch prototype solar cell with an efficiency of 23.4 percent. This is a world-record for a large area solar cell. SunPower has reported improvements of its cell efficiency in the laboratory and in mass production since its first all-back contact solar cell prototype in 2003.

"This is a step function increase from our 22 percent efficient Gen 2 technology, which has been in mass production since last year," said Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower Corp. "Credit for this achievement goes to our world- class research and development team led by Dick Swanson and Bill Mulligan, as well as to our talented engineering group."

We are pleased to have demonstrated early success with our Gen 3 technology," said Bill Mulligan, vice president of technology and development at SunPower Corporation. "This record efficiency solar cell, which is expected to be commercially available in approximately two years, extends SunPower's leadership position and is a key component of our plan to reduce system cost by 50 percent by the year 2012."

Source: SunPower Corporation