Wind Energy Works! Blogs

GAO: Comparing Electricity Subsidies

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report comparing electricity subsidies by fuel type in response to a request from Senators Alexander and Carper.  The report looks at both R&D and tax expenditures for fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable energy from FY 2002 through FY 2007.  While this report does not include the subsidies received by conventional generation over the past 50 to 80 years or subsidies outside of R&D or tax measures, such as limited liability insurance and loan guarantees, it does present a clear picture that renewable energy continues to receive only a fraction of subsidies from the Federal government.

The Results?

Total R&D Expenditures from FY 2002 to FY 2007: $11.5 billion with nuclear receiving $6.2 billion, fossil fuel receiving $3.1 billion and renewable energy receiving $1.4 billion.

Total Tax Expenditures from FY 2002 to FY 2007: $18.2 billion with fossil fuel receiving $13.7 billion and renewable energy receiving $2.8 billion.

Building a Wind Turbine

Someone created a video of a wind tubine being assembled in the field.  Take a look:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=PyehD1j0kUU

Oh say can you see...

the turbines from where you are?

I just saw the Daily Show's story on Cape Wind.  It put it all into perspective and is worth the 5 1/2 minute viewing.  Click here, and watch "Jason Jones 180 - Nantucket."

Illinois -- A New State Force in Wind Power ?

Illinois may soon become a focus on wind development in the U.S. -- and within a few years could become the leading wind power producing state east of the Mississippi River. The best wind areas for producing electricity from clean, domestic, inexhaustible wind energy are typically found west of the Mississippi in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains states as well as Texas. But thanks to newer wind turbine technology, developers are able to harness the generally lower wind speed in the eastern half of the country.

Today, the eastern states of New York and Pennsylvania has been the focus on most on-line wind projects on this side of the Mississippi River -- but Illinois is coming on strong and now boasts the second largest amount of on-line wind projects in the eastern half of the country at 305 megawatts generating clean energy as of the end of June, 2007. But an increasing trend in Illinois could boost it past New York (currently at 390 megawatts) in the very near future and that trend could accelerate further in the next few years.

Projects are under development in several counties in Illinois, such as McLean, Woodford, Livingston, and LaSalle Counties -- representing over 2,000 megawatts from these project in these counties. And according to the Black & Veatch engineering firm, Illinois has the most wind power in development right now (5,500 MW) of any state in the country.

Policy developments in Illinois will continue to feed these trend, as the state recently became one of the most recent states to pass a "renewable portfolio standard", requiring utilities in Illinois to include a certain percentage of renewable energy in the electricity they provide to their customers. According to the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago, the new law is summarized as follows:

"The RES Requirement is 10% by 2015 and 25% by 2025, with annual steps in-between. The IPA must, as a part of each utility’s procurement plan, include renewable energy at an increasing rate: in 2008, renewable energy shall constitute 2% of each utility’s total supply to eligible customers; in 2009, the required renewable energy is 4%; and the requirement ramps up by 1% each year up to 10% by 2015. Thereafter, between 2015 and 2025, the required renewable energy ramps up 1.5% each year to 25% by 2025. "

And another provision requires that "At least 75% of the renewable energy purchased is required to be from wind power."

At the sold-out "Illinois Wind Energy Conference" that I attended and presented at last month in Bloomington, Illinois, there was a very strong showing by at least 10 U.S. wind developers by my count, so that is an indication that Illinois could become the next major state for wind development in the U.S. Illinois will likely trail its' neighbors to the west (Iowa and Minnesota , the number three and four states in the U.S. for wind power projects on-line) for several years, but who knows by the end of the decade ? But for the immediate future --watch Illinois take the lead in wind power development in the eastern half of the U.S., that's my prediction....

What Happens in Vegas...uses water.

Nearly 50% of all the water the U.S. withdraws from streams, rivers and aquifers is for electricity consumption

Most of the large and growing population areas in the West are bound to have “water conflicts” in the future, according to the Department of the Interior.

Yet, there is still a resistance to diversifying electricity production with renewable energy and moving away from energy sources that use large quantities of water.  Las Vegas is considered to be highly likely for water conflict by 2025 and “[w]ithout new sources of water, the Las Vegas Valley is expected to begin to outgrow its supply within the next five years,” according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.  Yet, the Journal recently published an editorial completely dismissing the use of renewable energy in Nevada in favor of additional coal and nuclear capacity, the two highest water-consuming energy sources for electricity production.   

Wind and other renewable energy sources use little or no water and Nevada has a wealth of renewable energy options.  The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration even notes that  “Nevada is rich in renewable energy potential but has few fossil energy resources… Nevada leads the Nation in geothermal power potential and much of the State is suitable for wind power development”

Currently natural gas and coal-fired electric generation powers over 80% of Nevada, although Nevada produces neither of these fossil energy sources.  A national renewable electricity Standard would incentivize Nevada to take advantage of its abundant domestic and clean renewable energy resources.  This new market-based energy policy would help the state diversify its energy “portfolio” away from energy sources that use significant amounts of water for production, helping divert the looming water crisis in the West. 

Big wind farms

Today TXU and Shell Wind announced a proposed 3,000 MW wind farm in Texas. 

Last month, oilman T.Boone Pickens annnounced his intentions to build a 4,000 MW wind farm in Texas. That's quite a race.

BP and Clipper Windpower have proposed a 5,000 MW wind farm in South Dakota.

Those three farms alone would double today's capacity of wind in the US. 

79% of people support wind on the North Carolina coast

According to new Wind Energy Works! member, the North Carolina State University Solar Center:

A community survey on wind energy was completed preliminary results show that 79% of respondents are highly supportive of wind energy along the North Carolina coast. The majority of respondents are supportive of all scales of wind development: 87% support utility scale, 90% support community scale and 87% support residential scale. The top three perceived barriers to wind development on the North Carolina coast, according to the survey are political hurdles, cost and negative public perception.
The town meetings along the coast this summer are aimed at helping to eliminate barriers, such as the negative public perception, through community discussion and education.  See the story here.

16,000 Jobs last year

A new report says that direct employment in the wind industry in 2006 created 16,000 jobs. 

Direct plus indirect jobs:  36,800. 

Read an article about it in Solar Today.

Wind: The Homegrown Energy Source

In the federal RPS debate, people have questioned the wisdom of asking some states to buy renewable energy credits from other states in articles such as this one.  However, consider that we already see coal and gas-rich states sell fuel to other states.  Consider:

• Wind energy is currently produced in 35 states, more than any conventional electric power fuel source.
• All states currently import and export energy sources such as coal and natural gas, to meet each state’s energy needs. 
• Nearly 40 states currently import natural gas and coal from other states. Under a National 15% RPS, some states may have to import renewable energy from other states.  However, most states have some indigenous renewable energy sources including wind, solar, biomass and geothermal. States that do not produce sufficient renewable energy have the option of securing market credits to meet renewable energy goals.

Wind and other renewable resources are domestically produced energy sources.  The U.S. currently imports 19% of our natural gas, 80% of our uranium, and 3% of our coal from foreign nations. 

In fact, an independent study by Wood Mackenzie found that a 15% RPS would actually reduce power and natural gas costs.

Do Facts Matter?

Last night I went to a public meeting about wind power in Stephenville, a little town on the edge of west Texas.  It was organized by folks with concerns about wind farms and I had hoped to be able to speak and settle some issues.  No such luck.

Before the meeting started I asked the organizer for a minute or two and was told no - if I wanted to speak I could organize my own meeting.  (I had called earlier in the week but my call was not returned.)This lack of interest as to what the wind industry had to say about wind turbines was surprising, when the handouts presented to everyone in attendance is titled:  Facts about Industrial Wind Turbines.

Just about every "fact" on that handout is wrong or misleading.  I won't go through them one by one here, but when people promote false information as factual, and will not allow for a dialogue on real issues, it begs the question as to what these anti-wind folks are really up to.