North American Windpower: State Clean Energy Funds Driving Record Project Development

by NAW Staff on Wednesday 31 October 2012

State clean energy funds have remained major drivers of renewable energy development in the U.S. and have resulted in the construction of nearly 130,000 projects that have added nearly 4.8 GW of new clean energy to the grid since 1998, finds a new report released by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA).

2011 saw the most state-funded clean energy projects installed in a single year. State clean energy funds supported 32,734 clean energy projects in 2011 - an 18% increase over 2010 and almost twice the number of projects installed in 2009.

Since 1998, states have invested $3.4 billion in public funds in renewable energy projects and successfully leveraged an additional $12.5 billion. Total investment over this period was $15.9 billion.

"Despite the economic climate, state clean energy funds have continued to demonstrate innovation, support emerging technologies and advance clean energy markets," says Mark Sinclair, executive director of CESA. "The better news is that, after 13 years of data collection, we feel confident that these industry trends are here to stay."

The report draws from the CESA National Renewable Energy Database, which is designed to centralize information from across the country, simplify state clean energy program reporting and administration, and make it easier to track important market measures, the organization says.

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