Good news on the wind energy front: new statistics from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) show that previous estimates of U.S. wind power resources actually underestimated the amount of energy available. The new statistics estimate that onshore wind power could generate 37,000,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) each year--nine times the amount of energy required to power the country. NREL also ranked the top 10 states with the highest wind potential as follows:

Top 10 wind potential states
State	MW of wind turbines	GWh each year of wind power
Texas	1,901,530	6,527,850
Kansas	952,371	3,646,590
Montana	944,004	3,228,620
Nebraska	917,999	3,540,370
South Dakota	882,412	3,411,690
North Dakota	770,196	2,983,750
Iowa	570,714	2,026,340
Wyoming	552,073	1,944,340
Oklahoma	516,822	1,788,910
New Mexico	492,083	1,644,970

We still have a long way to go before the U.S. meets its full wind power potential. The country currently has an installed capacity of 35 GW, but its total potential is over 10,000 GW. In other words, it's time to start building.

[Via Renewable Energy Focus]