Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

With the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center reporting that there are 8,250 wind energy jobs in the Bay State, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) are backing an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), according to the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot Ledger.

The bipartisan support for the PTC reflects warnings from wind industry advocates that roughly half of the 75,000 jobs in the industry nationwide will be lost by the end of the first quarter of 2013 if the credit, scheduled to expire Dec. 31, is not extended by Congress.

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Andrew Stiles had a recent column in the Washington Free Beacon criticizing the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), but strangely ignoring incentives for other energy sources. For the record, a few facts Mr. Stiles fails to mention:

Wind's incentive is not a handout--it's provided in the form of a federal tax credit. Unless you assume that all the money people and companies earn in the private sector belongs to the government, a tax reduction is different from government subsidies or loan guarantees. A tax credit leaves more money in private hands, creating private investment and privately financed jobs. The PTC has helped the wind power industry attract $60 billion in private investment since 2005—clearly, it is a successful business tax ...

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FoxNews.com carried a recent column on dissatisfaction with small wind turbines in Nevada. While the article may have been factual, it failed to provide important context.

Although the small wind industry has installed more than 150,000 units in the U.S. in the last decade, it has continuously battled the problems of poor siting and untested turbine designs.  Even proven, reliable turbines, when they are installed in poor wind resources--like most urban environments--underperform expectations.  In addition, the wind is a very challenging operating environment for mechanical equipment, and untested designs often suffer failures.

The small wind industry, as Larry Sherwood of the Small Wind Certification Council ...

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Wind industry advocates and supporters held a rally yesterday in Boulder, Colo., to push for an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), according to the Boulder County Business Report.  The event was hosted by Juwi Wind LLC, a locally based subsidiary of Juwi Group, an international wind farm developer, and cosponsored by The Renewable Energy Initiative, a national educational nonprofit that is headquartered in Boulder.

The article quoted Juwi Wind CEO Michael Rucker on the local economic impact if Congress fails to extend the PTC. Not only would 37,000 jobs be lost nationwide, Rucker said, but "The impact would be felt by ...

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The Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press, in an editorial today, calls on Congress to renew the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), saying in part, "The tax credit is not a gift. It is an investment in an industry that understands the need to improve its products and to bring down costs. Wind energy companies continue to strive to do so, but will not be able to sustain the effort if a partisan Congress does not extend the tax credit."

The editorial laments the fact that partisan maneuvering has created a challenging legislative environment and, to date, stalled extension of the PTC, noting that the credit "helped the industry grow into a viable one over the years and ... helped lower the cost ...

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The following letter to the editor of the Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal was not published.

A Sept. 7 story (“Arnold-Jones:  Energy Independence Within Next Five Years”) reports that 1st Congressional District Republican candidate Janice Arnold-Jones prefers rolling back regulations on oil and gas production to investments in renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

But the answer isn’t “either/or,” it’s “all-of-the-above.”  We need a full menu of methods to increase energy production that includes the power of wind.

Wind energy is a clean, abundant, and affordable source of energy—and it is available and deployable now.  An assessment by the U.S. Department of Energy under the George W. Bush Administration concluded ...

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In a letter published in the Sioux City (S.D.) Journal yesterday, the Chairman of the Winnebago Tribal Council, John Blackhawk, called for extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

Mr. Blackhawk noted that his tribe intends to take advantage of Nebraska's abundant winds: "An important new chapter in the history of tribal economic self-sufficiency is being written on Winnebago tribal land in Thurston County, Neb. The Winnebago Tribal Council has entered into an agreement with Bluestem Energy Solutions of Omaha to construct four to six wind turbines on tribal land that will provide enough power to ...

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The fact that wind and solar energy use virtually no water may become a deciding factor in their favor, according to Michael Liebreich, CEO of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

In a white paper entitled "Water may top the case for renewables," Mr. Liebreich comments, "The other critical issue missing from the U.S. presidential election battle is water--particularly as U.S. Drought Monitor reports that nearly two-thirds of the nation is now suffering from moderate to exceptional drought conditions.


"Coal, gas and nuclear power generation all use large amounts of water. Of these, nuclear is the thirstiest – though many plants are on the coast, using seawater rather ...

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Extending the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) "would be a good move for the nation, which needs to increase its sources of clean and renewable energy," said the Kansas City (Mo.) Star yesterday in an editorial.

Added the Star, "Wind energy companies are laying off a lot of employees, cutting production and making dire predictions about their future. The biggest concern: Congress has not extended a crucial tax credit that makes it financially feasible for the industry to compete with other subsidized energy sources.

"Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, along with U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, are battling to keep the credit. Good for these three ...

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Guest post by Scott Wood, power technician, Danotek Motion Technologies

There's been a lot of discussion about jobs in energy lately.  I'd like to chip in my two cents, because I have one of those jobs myself.

Right now I work for Danotek Motion Technologies, a company that's based in the Detroit suburbs and that makes a line of industrial equipment used in the wind power business--specifically, advanced permanent magnet generators and full-power converters that are used in both land-based and offshore wind turbines.

I've been with Danotek for about a year and a half, since finishing a power technician training course at the Michigan Institute for Aviation and Technology (MIAT) in Canton, Michigan.

Before ...

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