... California incentives again lead, with subsidies, wind maps and how-to booklets, but Texas tops all

based on wattage, and an approved installation may be paid off in only 6-7 years. Even given the costs to build a wind farm, it is estimated that a wind farm would pay back all the energy consumed in its life cycle in the first 8 months of operation.

California has also passed legislation to remove local restrictions, including height limits, and the CEC has published two booklets, "Buying a Small Wind Electric System - A California Consumer's Guide" and "Permitting Small Wind Turbines: A Handbook", and has produced a map which indicates wind speeds throughout California. Some states now require that utilities use a certain percentage of power from renewable resources, or use it as the base power when it is available.

California is not the only state encouraging use of wind power; wind turbines are now generating electricity in 25 states. Texas not only has the largest wind farm, with 421 wind turbines producing enough electricity for 239,000 homes, but has surpassed California in wind generated electricity. Another wind farm under construction in Texas will produce power for 60,000 homes, thereby eliminating an estimated 375,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel generation.

Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin are also the sites of wind farms. Usually owned and operated by independent power producers, they sell their power to public utilities. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of National Renewable Energy Laboratory is about to create a facility for testing large wind turbine blades. Knight & Carver, a Californa company originally in marine services, has opened a wind-blade manufacturing and repair facility in Howard, South Dakota.

wind power in Europe; Potential in Asia

While wind power explotation is expanding, the United States ranks behind Germany and Spain in wind power capacity, just ahead of India and Denmark. Though ranking fifth, Denmark generates 20% of its electricity from wind and in some areas of the country, wind provides 80% of the power. Because European governments have supported wind power development, Europe now leads the world in wind power production as well as in wind turbine technology.

Denmark is the current leader in wind power technology and the Danish firm Vestas has already installed more than 9,300 wind turbines in the United States. It recently announced that it will establish a wind turbine factory in Colorado, with 400 employees, and it has signed a contract to install eight wind turbines in Tehachapi Pass in Southern California later this year.

Already U.S. corporate CEOs have concluded that energy conservation, improvements in efficiency and the use of cleaner or green products reduce costs and increase profits.