Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

Yesterday, Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) delivered the 13th in his series of speeches on the federal wind energy production tax credit (PTC), looking at its impact on the state of Idaho.

His remarks in part:

"In 2011, Idaho's installed wind capacity grew by nearly 75 percent. That growth created hundreds of temporary construction jobs as well as permanent jobs in operation and maintenance of those facilities.  Another number, right now Idaho wind farms provide enough power for nearly 160,000 homes without releasing the nearly 1.1 million tons of carbon dioxide that traditional power sources would. 

"Wind supports close to 500 jobs in the state of Idaho--jobs that wouldn't exist if the wind industry hadn't been enticed to invest in Idaho by the ...

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Washington, D.C, July 30, 2012--The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) is disappointed that the Romney campaign has come out with an anti-wind stance, particularly in Iowa, the state that gets 20% of its power from wind and the state with more major manufacturing facilities than any other. According to a statement to the Des Moines Register newspaper, the presidential candidate supports letting the very popular and bipartisan wind industry Production Tax Credit expire at the end of this year. A recent poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for AWEA found that “an overwhelming majority of Iowa voters would be less likely to support an anti-wind candidate for office.”
 
Key findings from ...

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Anemometry Specialists, of Alta, Iowa, is one of hundreds of wind companies, large and small, from coast to coast that are hoping for an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) before its scheduled expiration at the end of this year.

Company president Rob Hach told radio station KMA in an interview Saturday that the PTC, which provides tax relief to wind farm operators based on the amount of electricity they produce, benefits companies like his, which offers wind measurement services.  If the credit expires, he said, jobs will be lost: "If we don't have the tax credit, then we're going to have to be paying for it with unemployment. I would rather be working, ...

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Ottawa, Canada, July 27 – In response to a proposed national study by Health Canada on wind turbine sound and human health, the European, American, Canadian, global and United Kingdom wind energy industry associations point to 17 reviews of independent research and evidence that all conclude wind is not harmful to human health. According to the associations, wind energy is regarded as one of the safest forms of electricity generation. At the end of 2011, there were 237,669 MW of installed wind energy capacity around the world. Wind energy is a leading source of new electricity globally and is operating in more than 89 countries.

"As a responsible industry that has been delivering clean electricity for more than 30 years, we collectively continue to engage with experts in ...

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Yesterday, the U.S. Senate was in session, and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) delivered his 12th speech about the need for Congress to pass an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

Udall's address focused on Illinois, and the PTC's economic impacts on the state.  Illinois has the fourth-largest wind capacity in the nation, enough to power the equivalent of 600,000 homes. The Center for Renewable Energy at Illinois State University reported recently that the state's 23 largest wind farms have generated more than 19,000 construction and maintenance jobs and will add nearly $6 billion to local economies over the lifetime of the projects  A 2010 report from the

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Wind energy is powering an "energy revolution" in Pennsylvania and across America, writes John Hanger, former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in an op-ed in the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News.

Wind farms in Fayette, Somerset, Blair, Cambria, Tioga, Bradford, Lycoming, Schuylkill, Luzerne and Wayne counties will churn out enough electricity to power the equivalent of 450,000 Pennsylvania homes, according to Hanger, who adds, "All that electricity will be produced without air emissions, water withdrawals from streams or polluted water needing safe disposal."

Yet despite the benefits that wind power has brought to the Keystone ...

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The following article is one in a series of case studies included in AWEA's recently published Small Wind Turbine Market Report Year End 2011.

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the U.S. initiated a program to expand and upgrade its border stations with Canada and Mexico. Federal agencies have aggressive clean energy and carbon reduction goals, and the federal government’s General Services Administration (GSA) is responsible for many of the federal government’s buildings, including energy procurement. While the U.S. operates 168 border stations, in GSA’s New England Region, there are 47 land ports of entry (LPOEs), ranging in size ...

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This article by Niketa Kumar is cross-posted from the U.S. Department of Energy blog.

There’s a simple truth in wind energy -- the longer the blade, the more watts generated.

In the 1980s, blades were typically 65 feet long. Today, as the wind industry continues to grow, blades measure over 150 feet. Looking down the road, the next generation of wind turbine blades is expected to span beyond the length of a football field.

In the United States, energy generation from wind turbines has grown by 27 percent over the last year, with production facilities now in more than 40 states. We want to make sure the best, most ...

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Some 3,000 jobs in North Carolina are threatened by the impending expiration of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) at the end of this year, according to the Southeastern Coastal Wind Coalition.

Because of the lead time involved in ordering turbines and parts for new wind farms, the uncertainty of the credit's status is already impacting companies in the wind power industry.

Coalition president Brian O'Hara says of the situation, "When you have uncertainty in what tax policy is going to be, that prevents developers from making decisions, and when developers can't make decisions then suppliers can't make decisions, and it slows down the whole economy ... ...

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This article by Bradley J. Dibble, MD, is cross-posted from his blog Comprehending the Climate Crisis with his permission.

If I were to propose a new product for the marketplace to be used for human consumption, it would need to be rigourously assessed to confirm its safety first. If I described my new product as having the following properties, what do you think would be its chances of getting approved?

—It’s addictive, not just habit-forming.
—It’s known to cause or aggravate the following health conditions: heart disease, oral cancer, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, bladder cancer, emphysema, chronic ...

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