The answer is blowing in the wind

Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity from wind turbines as from nuclear power plants, according to a new government report.

The report, a collaboration between the Energy Department research labs and industry, concludes wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030, about the same share now produced by nuclear reactors. Such growth would pose a number of major challenges, but is achievable without the need of major new technological breakthroughs.

“The report indicates that we can do this nationally for less than half a cent per kilowatt hour if we have the vision,” said Andrew Karsner, the Energy Department’s assistant secretary for efficiency and renewable energy.

“The United States possesses abundant wind resources,” said the report spearheaded by DOE’s National Renewable Technology Laboratory in Golden, Colorado and a 20 percent share of electricity production “while ambitious, could be feasible.”