US already among world leaders in wind power

The offshore wind industry is in its infancy in the United States, but the United States already already has installed enough land-based wind farms to power 19 million homes.

And the U.S. Department of Energy says wind will supply 10 percent of the country’s electricity by 2020, 20 percent by 2030 and 35 percent by 2050.

 A typical wind turbine has more than 8,000 components, and those pieces are manufactured in 500 plants in 43 U.S. states, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Learn what that might mean for Massachusetts, which will be the home of the first industrial-scale offshore wind farm in the USW. Read New Bedford Wind Energy Center Director Paul Vigeant’s take on the future of wind here.