By Ben Block and Amanda Chiu
A new U.S. Department of Energy study concludes that up to 30 percent of the eastern and Midwestern United States could technically power itself with wind energy, the most optimistic government projection produced so far.
A 2008 analysis of wind speeds, infrastructure capacity, and government regulations estimated that the United States could generate 20 percent of its electricity from wind energy by 2030.
The new analysis, released on Wednesday, concluded that wind power could supply as much as 30 percent of the area east of the Great Plains, known as the U.S. Eastern Interconnection, by 2024 if transmission infrastructure expands significantly.
