The AWEA Blog: Into the Wind


Southern Alliance head urges: Extend the PTC

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 Tom Gray

The Nashville Tennessean carried an op-ed Sunday from Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, calling for an extension of the wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) to "create domestic jobs, provide clean, safe energy, and lower monthly bills."

Regarding jobs, Smith wrote, "More than 400 facilities in 43 states are involved in wind power manufacturing — a 12-fold increase over the past six years. As the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service notes, 'Wind turbine manufacturing is at the core of the multifaceted wind power industry. Because of the use of castings, forgings, and machining, turbine manufacturing is a significant contributor to U.S. heavy manufacturing.' This is an American success story, with the PTC for wind driving ...


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Wind Energy Foundation: Something to 'like'

Posted: 13 Mar 2012 Tom Gray

The new Wind Energy Foundation, which describes itself formally as "a 501c3 dedicated to raising public awareness of wind as a clean and reliable source of domestic energy through communication, research and education," has opened a Facebook page, and we have it on good authority that a website will be launched today. Stop by, check out the Facebook page, and be sure to click "Like" if you like wind power and believe clean energy should be part of our future.

The Foundation is headed by Executive Director Darlene Snow, who was appointed several months ago. As she said then, ...


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Fact check: Roanoke Times op-ed misses a few key facts

Posted: 13 Mar 2012 Tom Gray

Today's edition of the Roanoke (Va.) Times includes an op-ed by Charles Simmons, a consultant and retired vice president of Appalachian Power Co., and Bill Tanger, chairman of Friends of the Rivers of Virginia. Messrs. Simmons and Tanger begin by agreeing with the author of a previous article that people need to be fully informed about wind power. We also agree, and with that in mind, here are a few facts they overlooked.

Most people like the way wind farms look. That's why rotating wind turbines have become a staple of television advertising for all sorts of products totally unrelated to wind power or energy, and it's one reason wind power continues to enjoy high levels of support among the American public. My personal opinion, as one of those who find ...


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Fact check: Fox fumbles on wind contracts in Pacific Northwest

Posted: 13 Mar 2012 Tom Vinson, Sr. Dir. of Regulatory Affairs

FoxNews.com carried a story late last week on a contract dispute between the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and wind farms in the Pacific Northwest. The story erred on a central issue of the disagreement: when is a contract binding? Here is our perspective:

On March 6, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) filed a "draft Oversupply Management Protocol" with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which oversees operation of the electric transmission system throughout the U.S.  The filing was in response to a unanimous ruling December 7, 2011, from FERC ordering BPA to halt discriminatory practices on its electricity transmission system and to file an open access transmission tariff.

BPA's March 6 filing would allow BPA to continue to ...


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New technology helps Texas system operator blow through wind generation records

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 Carl Levesque, AWEA Editor & Publications Manager

The utility system operator for most of the state of Texas broke its wind power generation record twice last week. But what’s almost as notable is what was behind the record—besides the wind, that is.

Wind output reached 7,599 MW at 8:41 p.m. on Wednesday, exceeding the 7,403 MW record from the previous day by 196 MW and meeting a full 22 percent of the system’s electricity demand. At the time of Wednesday’s record, total system load was 34,318 MW. Prior to March 6, the record for wind output on the ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] system was 7,400 MW, recorded on Oct. 7, 2011. 7,599 MW is enough to fully supply about 6 million typical American homes at average usage levels.

As impressive as all those numbers are, however, just as noteworthy are ...


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WindTV: Missouri manufacturer grows with the wind

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 Carl Levesque, AWEA Editor & Publications Manager

Will PTC uncertainty kill this American success story?

Able Manufacturing is creating new jobs and economic opportunity in Joplin, Mo., and this success story can be replicated all across the U.S. with stable tax policy.

In the latest segment of WindTV, the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) vehicle to highlight how wind works for America, Able CEO Jim Schwarz tells of how his wind energy supply chain manufacturing company went from zero employees in 2008 to 25, as well as of plans for adding another 10 employees to meet demand in what is expected to be a big year for wind energy development.

Able Manufacturing, a Missouri ...


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The Power Generation Portfolio of the Future

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 Tom Gray

This article is cross-posted by permission from GreenTech Media, where it first appeared.


Wind industry pioneer Dr. James Walker talks about U.S. electricity in the 21st century.

 

By Herman K. Trabish: March 8, 2012

 

Jim Walker remembers when nuclear-energy-generated electricity was going to be too cheap to meter and when a law prevented the use of U.S. natural gas supplies for electricity ...


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Paul Woodin, community wind expert, passes

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 Carl Levesque, AWEA Editor & Publications Manager

The community-wind segment of the wind power industry this week mourned the death of Paul Woodin, facilitator and advocate of community wind power and Vietnam veteran, who passed away on March 2 at the Oregon Veterans’ Home. He was 64.
 
Born in Illinois and raised in New York state, Woodin developed a base of knowledge applicable to wind energy by graduating from Florida Air Academy in 1965 and St. Louis University’s Parks College of Aeronautical Technology in 1972. It wasn’t until after stints at Lockheed in Burbank, Calif., and a Martin Marietta Aluminum plant in Goldendale, Wash., however, that Woodin found his wind power calling. When the aluminum plant closed, Woodin started his own business assisting community wind projects and most recently worked with the Community ...


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Friday fact check: Fox features faux facts from fossil fuels folks

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 Tom Gray

Sorry, just couldn't resist that title.

Anyway, FoxNews.com carried an op-ed yesterday from two representatives of Americans for Prosperity, a fossil-fuels-funded group. Not surprisingly, it included misleading data on wind power's key incentive, the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

The source of the error is quite clear: analyzing only a single year of energy incentives is a poor way to judge the support afforded by the U.S. government to many kinds of energy sources for decades.

Consider a coal-fired power plant installed in 1965 and still generating electricity today. That power plant was subsidized when it was installed, and the mining and transportation of its fuel have been subsidized in the 45-plus years ever since. If you ...


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Oklahoma and America need wind technicians--and a PTC extension

Posted: 08 Mar 2012 Tom Gray

National Public Radio carried a segment yesterday on the need for wind turbine technicians in Oklahoma, a state that has been hard hit by unemployment, and elsewhere around the nation.  The rapid expansion of America's wind power industry, it said, means there is a growing need for technicians to service and maintain the giant machines.

Being a turbine jockey isn't for everyone--it requires the ability to work high in the air as well as in enclosed spaces. But it's a job that provides a solid paycheck and valuable experience in an industry that is likely to keep growing in the future (for what it has meant to one Iowa family, and one wind technician who says, "This is a pretty ...


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