The wind energy industry is booming worldwide. In 2018, wind capacity in the United States more than doubled its capacity in 2010, according to the Wind Energy Association (AWEA), seeing an 8 percent increase into 96,433 MW of cumulative installed wind capacity. Looking further back in time, to the last decade specifically, U.S. wind power has more than tripled. The U.S. now has enough installed wind capacity to provide electricity to over 30 million American homes.

On February 7, 2019, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Representative Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced a five-page nonbinding resolution to the House, which lead to the birth of the Green New Deal. This plan to fight climate change calls for cutting emissions in half by 2030 in order to limit global warming to less than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and calls for the United States to transition to 100% renewable electricity in 10 years.

As a demonstration of the state’s goal of acquiring all of its electricity from emission-free sources by 2040, New York is preparing to pass its own version of the Green New Deal with a climate bill that would more than triple the state’s solar capacity and ambitiously promote the development of wind farms off its coast. According to Governor Cuomo, the bill, which calls for increasing the amount of solar power in the Empire State to 6 gigawatts by 2025 and installing 9 gigawatts of offshore wind generation by 2035, is the “most aggressive in the country”.

Given the environmental benefits associated to the production of wind energy, these findings and developments offer quite promising news. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), electricity production generates the second largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, following transportation. Roughly 68 percent of our electricity comes from burning fossil fuels – primarily coal and natural gas. Offsetting electricity with Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and natural gas usage with Carbon Offsets are great ways to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, there are different ways consumers can choose to power their homes with wind energy. In deregulated energy states, people have the option to support wind energy by choosing a supplier who purchases renewable energy certificates (RECs) sourced from wind, such as Kiwi Energy. RECs are contractual instruments that represent the full suite of environmental attributes of 1 Megawatt-hour of renewable energy generation on the electricity grid, and allow you to demonstrate demand for the generation of clean, renewable energy.

Visit kiwienergy.us to learn more about Kiwi Energy or click here to sign up for Kiwi Clean + Wind REC.