With more than $700 million in wind energy projects completed so far this year in California, the Golden State is the third greenest in total wind operating capacity, according to a report issued this week by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

Measured by megawatts of wind energy capacity, California's 2,787 MW is just behind Iowa, which has 3,053 MW of capacity, and Texas, well in the lead with 8,797 MW. A recent memorandum between Governor Schwarzenegger and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will quicken progress on about 30 wind, solar and geothermal projects set to be developed in 2010 and qualify for at least $15 billion in federal stimulus funds. That is significant considering that wind energy construction nationwide is 38 percent lower this year than it was at this time in 2008, though third quarter construction was higher than in the same period last year.

"Wind power installations are up, and that is good news for America's economy, environment and energy security," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. "But manufacturing ... remains uncertain."

Even so, Donna Lotz, a representative of wind and solar energy developer enXco, thinks there is reason to believe the industry might have a sustainable future in this state and elsewhere. EnXco completed work on a $300 million 150-MW wind energy plant in Solano County, California. 

"Financing has impacted all, from student loans to renewable energy projects, however renewables have not suffered as much as other industries," Lotz said in an e-mail to Neon Tommy. "The current administration is quite favorable to renewable anyway and 2010 looks quite promising for renewable energy growth."

While 2010 might be better for the industry, no new wind project installations were completed in California during the third quarter of this year. Although in the second quarter of 2009 the Pine Tree Wind Farm was completed in Los Angeles. 

Originally 120 MW in capacity, the plant - located in the Tehachapi Mountains above Los Angeles - is currently under construction to gain an extra 15 MW of capacity, the AWEA reports. With an estimated cost of $425 million, Pine Tree is estimated to deliver enough energy to power 56,000 homes. 

"Pine Tree is the start of a new model of clean energy, in which the City of Los Angeles is no longer satisfied with only buying clean power, but is taking the lead nationally in producing its own," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when the plant broke ground in December 2008.

Villaraigosa has pledged to make 20 percent of the city's energy generated by renewables by 2010--Pine Tree represents 1.4 percent of that goal.  The LADWP claims the plant displaces at least 200,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, similar to taking 35,000 vehicles off our crowded highways.

By 2020, Villaraigosa would like to see 35 percent of Los Angeles' energy needs powered by renewables, but to get there the rate of manufacturing wind energy in the city and the state must bounce back from the decline the AWEA expects for the fourth quarter of 2009.