Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

IEA Wind, a cooperative technology research and analysis effort of the International Energy Agency, has released a new report which confirms that the cost of wind-generated electricity in the U.S. and Denmark is at an all-time low due to performance improvements driven by advances in wind technology.

As its title suggests, the report, "The Past and Future Cost of Wind Energy," is aimed at understanding factors which have influenced the cost of delivered wind energy in the past and using that information to estimate future cost trends.  Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) worked on the report along with ...

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Arbitrary tax code restrictions hampering investment, job creation potential

ATLANTA, Ga., June 5, 2012 – A new report released today by the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University finds that expanding access to Master Limited Partnerships (MLP) for renewable energy has the potential to allow billions of dollars of untapped investment from Main Street investors to support renewable energy infrastructure.

An MLP is a publicly-traded limited partnership in which regular investors can purchase shares in the partnership (called MLP units) just like stock shares. These investments have long been utilized by the oil and gas industry, but renewable projects have been excluded by federal tax law from using them.

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Adding the next 11,000 megawatts (MW) of wind generating capacity to the western U.S. could be done in such a way as to reduce both wholesale costs and utility system variability, according to Lawrence Willick of LS Power.

Willick, one of the speakers at the WINDPOWER 2012 session "Operation Transmission: Plugging Wind into America," said the Western Renewable Energy Zone study published in 2009 had pegged wind potential of the western states at 95,000 MW, well above the 14,000 MW currently installed in the region.  "The question is, what's the next step?," he added.

The CREZ Transmission Optimization Study, conducted in conjunction with the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone program in Texas, provided the technical basis for a substantial expansion of wind ...

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U.S. has strong market share in wind, but is still in 4th place, WWF report finds

China continues to lead the global clean energy technology manufacturing race, according to a new report commissioned by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and launched at the WINDPOWER 2012 Conference & Exhibition in Atlanta yesterday.

The third edition of WWF's "Clean Economy, Living Planet" ranks 25 countries based on 2011 sales of the clean energy technology products they manufacture, such as solar panels and wind turbines. It found that in terms of total sales value of clean energy technology, China had the largest market, followed by the United States and Germany. ...

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Xcel Energy set a new record April 15 between 3 and 4 a.m. with 56.7 percent of the electricity on the Xcel Colorado system coming from wind power, a company spokesperson announced at a utility luncheon at the WINDPOWER 2012 Conference & Exhibition in Atlanta, Ga., today.

The new mark surpassed the system's previous high of 55.6 percent, reached Oct. 6, 2011, between 4 and 5 a.m.


Related articles:

WINDPOWER 2012 Update: Transmission for wind in western U.S.: Lower cost, lower variability, June 5, 2012

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New campaign advocates for renewing Production Tax Credit for wind

Today the Sierra Club launched “Wind Works,” a new campaign to advocate for renewal of the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy. The PTC, the group said, is a federal tax policy that helps level the playing field by providing the certainty the wind industry needs for continued growth.

“The 'Wind Works' campaign is the Sierra Club’s move to the next level, in advocating for renewable energy jobs and ensuring America transitions to a clean energy economy,” said Dave Hamilton, Director for Clean Energy of the Beyond Coal Campaign at the Sierra Club. “Congress is holding thousands of high-quality American jobs in their hands, but every day of uncertainty for ...

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The main speakers at the opening session of the WINDPOWER 2012 Conference & Exhibition in Atlanta, Ga., provided a concise cross-section of the bipartisan support behind both the wind power industry and its primary incentive, the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R), Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D), and White House energy advisor Heather Zichal all expressed support for the PTC and placed it and the wind industry's future in the context of U.S. national priorities and needs.

Brownback noted that the Sunflower State currently leads the nation in new turbines under construction (663), an amount that will add another 1,400 megawatts (MW) of wind capacity and double the state's wind generation in a single year (1,400 MW is ...

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Sherman Elliott, an energy consultant and former Illinois Commissioner, was quoted in a recent EnergyBiz article criticizing a recent study of the benefits and costs for consumers of adding wind energy and transmission in the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) grid operating region, comprising all or part of 13 states in the Upper Midwest. The original study was authored by respected economic consultants Synapse Energy Economics, and found that adding 20-40 GW of wind energy and associated transmission to the MISO region would yield net consumer benefits of between $3 and $9.4 billion per year, or $63-200 in annual benefits per household in the region, even after the costs of the investment were ...

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Wind turbine technology is improving rapidly, but challenges--especially the current very low cost of natural gas and uncertainty concerning the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC)--remain, according to presenters on a WINDPOWER 2012 session entitled "Post 2012: Wind Market Assessment of Supply, Demand & Cost."

In a talk focusing on technology improvement and innovation, Matt Kaplan of IHS Emerging Energy Research (IHS-EER) had some very positive news.  His firm, Kaplan said, predicts that the average capacity of the U.S. fleet will increase due to continuing changes in towers and turbines due to a "clear trend" toward turbines optimized for lower-wind-speed sites.  Kaplan cited the GE 1.6-100, a relatively new turbine with an increased rotor diameter, as an ...

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The fate of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) will impact a fiberglass supplier with a major factory in Shelby, N.C., local press reports said recently.

Cheryl Richards, wind energy global market manager for PPG Industries, told the Shelby Star newspaper that the company's fiberglass business, threatened in the past by foreign competition, had survived in part by expanding into wind power, where the material is a primary component of wind turbine rotor blades.  That in turn kept several hundred workers employed in the Shelby plant, which was opened in 1959 and has been churning out fiberglass ever since.

If the PTC is not extended, she added, PPG will ...

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