U.S. paves the way for a stellar 2020
Siemens Gamesa back in top 3 for installations in 2019
Siemens Gamesa regained the third market position in terms of onshore installations in 2019 in the U.S. despite difficult headwinds and looks to a busy future in 2020. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) released their “2019 Year End AWEA Policy and Advocacy by the Numbers report” on Wednesday, January 29.
The U.S. wind power industry as a whole also experienced impressive growth in 2019. Over 9 GW were installed in the U.S., the third strongest year for new installations, wind capacity increased 26% over the end of 2018 alone and the U.S. now produces enough clean, affordable energy to power 32 million average American homes. Not only that, wind power is a major job creator with over 114,000 U.S. workers. Today, there are nearly 60,000 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 105,583 MW in operation in the U.S. across 41 states, Guam and Puerto Rico. These impressive numbers contribute to avoiding over 200 million tons of CO2, equivalent to reducing the emissions of more than 42 million cars.
The industry will now see an extended opportunity to qualify projects that would come online as late as 2024, providing longer term certainty to the U.S. industry. This includes the potential for more repowering projects, which offers the unique opportunity to improve performance and extend the life of the project site, all while continuing to support manufacturing, construction and technician jobs.
U.S. offshore wind: A burgeoning market
The U.S. offshore market also took off in 2019 with Siemens Gamesa having been awarded 4.3 GW in conditional and preferred supplier agreements. With a total offshore wind pipeline of over 26,000 MW in federal leas areas and 14 states actively engaged, according to the American Wind Energy Association, offshore wind in the U.S. shows tremendous potential.
The first offshore wind project in U.S. federal waters, and Siemens Gamesa’s first offshore wind project in the U.S., will go into the water in 2020. Come 2026, over 9,000 MW are expected to be operational.
This, combined with an anticipated record number of U.S. installations onshore, will make 2020 a year for the record books.
With all of the success from 2019, Siemens Gamesa is strongly positioned for future growth in the U.S. both onshore and offshore and will continueproviding clean energy for generations to come.
