Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

Apple Computer, Inc., co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak expressed strong interest and support for wind turbines and the wind power industry in a special keynote speech at the AWEA Fall Symposium last week, saying of wind turbines, “I wish my home were up on a little hill overlooking a whole array of them. I would love that.”

Wozniak told attendees at the Carlsbad, Calif., event about his experiences as a young computer enthusiast, his work with the late Steve Jobs and his views on technological innovation in the wind industry.

He drew parallels between his experience increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of personal computers with the ...

Read more

A new report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) researchers finds that two important factors in the trend of wind turbine prices over the past decade have been the scaling up of turbine size to reduce cost of energy (COE) and the growth of a domestic supply chain as the U.S. dollar has declined against other major currencies.

The report, "Understanding Trends in Wind Turbine Prices Over the Past Decade," is authored by Mark Bolinger and Ryan Wiser of LBNL.

It appears to underline the degree to which the wind power industry is still emerging, in the sense that rapid progress in improving wind technology continues.  At the same time, the sharp drop in turbine prices in recent ...

Read more

The editors of Renewable Energy World.com recently announced the opening of nominations for the 2012 edition of their Excellence in Renewable Energy awards.

"Last year’s awards were a huge success. And over the past 9 months, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about when nominations will open up for the 2012 awards. Wait no longer -- the time is now.

"Nominations will remain open until December 31, after which the editors of the Renewable Energy World Network will vote for the winners in each category. We ...

Read more

The following is the text of an advertisement placed by Xcel Energy in yesterday's Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera. It concerns changes in Windsource, the voluntary green power option that Xcel offers customers. Xcel has previously commented publicly on its ability to acquire wind energy at low cost.

More wind, less cost

We're changing Windsource® to make it easier and cheaper for our Colorado customers to choose wind power for up to 100 percent of the electricity they use.

Our plan is to expand Windsource 400 percent, while cutting its price in half for residential and small business ...

Read more

The U.S. wind power industry stands on the verge of what could be a record year in 2012, but may come to earth if Congress fails to extend its federal tax incentive, in effect sharply and suddenly increasing the industry's tax burden.  That's the message that emerges from a recent overview of the wind industry's outlook by Kate Galbraith in The New York Times.

Galbraith quotes Michael O’Sullivan, senior vice president for development at renewable energy giant NextEra Energy Resources, as saying that if the credit is not extended, “I believe 2013 would have minimal if not close to zero wind built in the United States."

Read more

"Around the world renewable energy is going through a rebirth. It is becoming a big business. It is also becoming a more established part of the world's overall energy supply. Last year, $120 billion was spent to install renewable electricity generation worldwide. Yet it is still a relatively small business compared to the overall energy business, and one that still faces big challenges in getting to scale on a global basis."

That's Daniel Yergin, international energy and oil markets expert and author of the new bestseller "The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World" and the Pulitzer-Prize-winning book "The Prize," writing in an opinion column for ...

Read more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2011
Contact: Ellen Carey, ecarey@awea.org, 202-249-7357

Washington, D.C. (October 27, 2011) – American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) CEO Denise Bode released the following statement today in reaction to Rep. Mike Pompeo’s (R-Kan.) planned legislation to repeal the federal Production Tax Credit for wind energy.
 
“Representative Pompeo seems to misunderstand how a key federal tax incentive has built a thriving American wind manufacturing sector and tens of thousands of American jobs.
 
"Wind energy is creating one of the fastest-growing U.S. manufacturing sectors, growing to almost 400 factories in 2010, up from as few as 30 in 2004, as the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service recently ...

Read more

It's been a long and arduous struggle, but there were plenty of smiling faces yesterday as First Wind cut the ribbon marking the beginning of operation at its 40-MW wind project in Sheffield, VT. The Sheffield wind farm is by far the largest in Vermont, and the first installed in the Green Mountain State since the pioneering 6.05-MW Searsburg project in 1996.

While the mood was upbeat among the 200-plus attendees who packed into a tent beneath Turbine #4 for some speechifying and lunch, there was also a strong theme of both relief and pride among First Wind  spokespeople--relief at finishing a lengthy, difficult permitting process, and pride at completing what they described as a groundbreaking project in terms of ...

Read more

Wind power has been good to Iowa, attracting more than $5 billion in private investment, creating thousands of jobs, and giving farmers a new cash "crop" that provides income year in and year out. The emerging clean, affordable, homegrown energy source now generates 20 percent of the Hawkeye State's electricity. But as this two-minute segment on the wind power industry from KCAU-TV in Sioux City, Iowa, makes clear, a key federal incentive that has helped propel the industry's dramatic growth is currently scheduled to expire at the end of next year, and the Iowa Wind Energy Association and AWEA are pushing for its extension.

The federal wind Production Tax Credit ...

Read more

The following post replies to a question from National Journal to its "energy experts" list.  The question was as follows:

Is America Losing the Clean Energy Race?

Is the United States losing to countries like China in the global race to develop clean-energy technologies?

One top House Republican, Cliff Stearns of Florida, suggested that America has already lost. He told NPR earlier this month, “We can’t compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines.” Last week, a coalition of U.S.-based ...

Read more