What seems remarkable about these numbers is how quickly the US economy has been able to respond to the Stimulus given the huge project finance, production and logistical lead times that are required to get such projects off the ground.  Presumably there was some element of anticipating an Obama victory and a more favourable regulatory regime in these numbers.

Your previous diary noted that European Off-shore new capacity delivered in 2009 was 600 Megawatts and represented c. 10% of total new wind capacity in Europe.  Thus Europe delivered only c. 6 Gigawatt of new wind capacity in 2009 compared to 10 for the US.

Is there a danger that whilst the EU talks a good game on climate change and sustainable energy, the US actually gets on with the job and delivers more?  For how much longer can European firms maintain their lead in design and production technologies?

I appreciate that onshore is quicker, cheaper and easier to deliver, and the US has a huge advantage in onshore wind resources.  But they also have a crap grid and poor corporate infrastructure for enhancing it.  So who is going to hit capacity constraints for integrating wind power sooner?  Where are the EU and US on developing smart grids and efficient means of moving gigawatts of power from wind resource rich regions to wind poor but high demand regions?

It's great news for the US and the planet, but is the EU, once again, in danger of being left behind having made the running for so long?

notes from no w here