Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will speak at the country’s most prominent wind industry conference this month, the American Wind Energy Association said today.

Moniz’s appearance at AWEA’s conference, May 18-21 in Orlando, Fla., will be the first for a Department of Energy chief.

In his speech, Moniz is expected to focus on DOE’s Wind Vision program, which recently issued a report showcasing how domestic wind energy production could jump to 35 percent of overall domestic power generation by 2050.

Wind capacity increased by 8.1 percent last year and will likely grow by another 13.1 percent this year, a recent U.S. Energy Information Administration study found.

The wind industry created 23,000 new jobs in 2014 alone and moved forward with 100 new projects in the first quarter of this year that could generate more than 13,000 megawatts of power, according to AWEA.

Moniz could also address the hot-button wind production tax credit, which lawmakers allowed to expire at the end of last year. Wind energy producers would like a long-term extension of at least five years, but they have received pushback from Republicans who oppose extending the PTC.