NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. wind power capacity grew last year by its fastest rate yet, but development "slowed to a trickle" late in 2008 as the credit crunch hit renewable energy, an industry group said.
"Our numbers are both exciting and sobering," said Denise Bode, chief executive of the American Wind Energy Association.
The capacity of new wind turbines installed in the United States last year totaled 8,358 megawatts, a record growth rate of nearly 50 percent over 2007. Total capacity hit more than 25,000 MW, or about enough to power nearly 7 million homes, AWEA said.
U.S. wind power created about 35,000 jobs last year, for a total of 85,000. Some of those jobs were in the manufacturing of wind turbine components. The share of those that were domestic rose to about 50 percent last year, up from 30 percent in 2005, AWEA said.
But by the end of the year companies began laying off workers amid the crunch in financing for new projects and as orders for turbine components slowed.
The financial and economic downturns had begun take a "serious toll," Bode said.
The industry has put hope in President Barack Obama's plans for renewable energy. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday began debating some $31 billion in tax credits and incentives to boost alternative energy supplies as part of Obama's much larger economic recovery plan. Obama also plans to double U.S. alternative energy output over three years.
Any national renewable energy plan will also have to overcome a shortage of power lines, especially to bring power from the "wind corridor" in the Great Plains states to the heavily populated cities on the coasts.
Wind power accounted for about 42 percent of total new electricity generation built in the United States last year, AWEA said.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)
