2007 will go down as another record year for the wind energy industry, according to projections from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
The AWEA estimates the industry installed a record 3,000 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity in 2007–and produced enough total energy to supply more than 3 million American homes.
It was also a year of other important wind energy milestones, according to the AWEA. Texas surpassed California as the nation’s largest generator of wind power and conventional oil and gas companies BP (NYSE: BP) and Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) expanded into renewable wind energy.
The US wind power generation business continued to be led by integrated utilities in 2007. According to statistics published by the AWEA, Florida Power and Light (NYSE: FPL) was the nation’s leading wind power developer in 2007 and Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL), the largest purchaser of wind generated power.
NACEL Energy (OTC Bulletin Board: NCEN) emerged in 2007 as one of the only non-utility growth companies developing wind power. In December, the company received a positive rating from analysts at Investology Research.
NACEL Energy develops wind power generation projects in the fast growing under-20 MW market segment.