2012 has been a banner year for the American wind industry.

The U.S. wind industry in August for the first time surpassed 50,000 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity — enough to power 13 million homes, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said in a report issued on Thursday.

Wind developers have added 4,728 MW of wind power so far in 2012 with another 8,430 MW under construction, a record for this time of year, AWEA said.

Nice work everybody! Next year, of course, we may not build any turbines at all — unless Congress gets its act together and extends the wind production tax credit.

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But since Congress has had its act together on — what? four days total since the inception of the Republic? — we’re not holding out hope.

At the bottom of each new turbine, we should add a little plaque:

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

U.S. Wind Energy Production
1854 – 2012

I could use a different image here, but why would I?