A new report from the American Wind Energy Association shows Iowa is an industry leader.
The report’s authors analyzed the wind energy market for 2009 and found Iowa was the number one state in the nation in the percentage of electricity that comes from wind power. According to the report, Iowa gets 14 percent of its power from wind turbines.
Iowa also leads in the “highest number of jobs in the manufacturing sector.” There are plants in Iowa which make the blades for the turbines and the towers that hold those blades in the air.
The American Wind Energy Association ranks Texas as the state with the highest capacity for wind energy production and the largest number of so-called wind farms. But with the number of wind turbines that were installed in Iowa last year, Iowa now ranks second — ahead of California — in terms of capacity for wind energy production.