The United States is committed to an ambitious plan entitled "20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to US Electricity Supply."

Published in 2008 by the Energy Department, the plan sets the goal of using wind energy to meet 20 percent of the nation's electricity demands by 2030.

It requires contributions and combined efforts from the Energy Department and its national laboratories, the wind industry, electric utilities, and other groups.

According to the plan, each state should improve the reliability and operability of wind systems and increase capacity for wind power generation.

To realize the plan, the key is to increase the number of turbine installations from approximately 2,000 per year in 2006 to almost 7,000 per year in 2017.

"Our challenge now is to seize the historic opportunity before us to unleash this entrepreneurial force and build up an entire new industry here in the US that will create jobs, avoid carbon and strengthen our energy security," Bode said earlier this year.

After reaching 1,000 MW of wind energy in 1985, it took more than a decade for it to reach the 2,000-MW mark in 1999 in the United States.

Since then, the capacity installed has grown to 28,635 MW (till April 30, 2009) -- ahead of the ambitious plan, yet still far from the goal of 300 GW wind power generating capacity by 2030.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2009)