This article presents data on US, China, and World wind power as of the end of 2012. The sources are the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) at http://www.gwec.net/ , the American Wind Energy Association, andWikipedia.
From GWEC we have the world ranking for deployed wind energy, and a pie for its consumption:
The US has 60 gigaWatts (60 billion Watts or 60,000 megaWatts) deployed in 45,000 wind turbines. Since the capacity factor of wind power is generally 1/3 due to wind fluctuations, the averaged output of these turbines is 20 gigaWatts. Since the typical US nuclear reactor is about a gigaWatt, this is equivalent to about 20 US nuclear reactors. Wind power now represents 3% of US power. 70% of the new US wind turbines or parts were made in the US.
China is now first with about 76 gigaWatts of wind power. Its goal for 2020 is between 200-300 gigaWatts of wind power. China’s goal for 2030 is 400 gigaWatts, at which point it will provide 8.4% of its electricity production.
The world total of 282 gigaWatts supplies average power 1/3 of that or 94 gigaWatts. This is equivalent to about 90 US nuclear reactors, and generates about as much energy as all 104 US nuclear reactors, which is about 20% of US electrical energy.
