Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels declared this week Indiana Wind Energy Week. That seems redundant since the Indiana General Assembly is in session.

But seriously, the declaration followed an announcement from the American Wind Energy Association that Indiana is the fastest-growing state for wind energy installations in 2008. And that growth continues with groundbreaking events planned for two new wind farms this week in the state.

“We welcome the news that Indiana is the fastest-growing state for wind power energy,” Daniels said in a news release. “We’ve made homegrown clean energy production a priority, and we are proud to become a leader in new wind energy installations,”

Those groundbreaking ceremonies for wind energy projects totaling 306 megawatts are set for this week in Benton and White counties in northern Indiana.

Horizon Wind Energy plans to break ground on a 200 MW project in White County today, and enXco is beginning a 106 MW project in Benton County on Friday.

There are 130MW of commercially available wind energy installed in Indiana, according to the governor’s office.

That should boost upward to 836 MW by the end of 2009 as the two new projects and the 400 MW Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in Benton and Tippecanoe counties under development by BP Alternative Energy and Dominion Resources are completed.

That, the governor’s office said, would move Hoosier state past such traditional wind-producing states as South Dakota and Wyoming.

A copy of Daniels’ proclamation may be found through this link: http://www.in.gov/gov/files/Press/WindEnergyWeek.pdf

The announcement from the American Wind Energy Association may be found through this link: http://www.awea.org/

Now if we could just do something about harnessing the energy from all that hot air that comes out of the Statehouse.

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