California is the nation's renewable energy leader in several different categories, with most obvious being of course the installed solar power capacity and the development of solar energy industry in general. California is also the nation's geothermal energy leader and has very progressive renewable energy portfolio standard under which 33 percent of the state’s electricity should from renewable energy sources by 2020.
In order to achieve this goal California does not only plan adding more solar and geothermal capacity but is also opening the door to many new wind energy projects and is investing heavily into wind energy industry.
The most recent report from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) says that California was nation's leader in wind energy investments in 2011 after investing more than $2 billion in wind energy industry.
It is estimated that wind energy industry provides jobs for around 5,000 people in California and with many new wind energy projects close to going online this number will no doubt increase rapidly in years to come.
It is estimated that wind power now satisfies approximately 5% of California’s total electricity needs which is enough for around 400,000 households.
In 2011 California added 921 megawatts of new wind power capacity to the grid. This represents more than 13.5% of the 6,810 megawatts of total wind power installed in U.S. last year.
