Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

A recent trade publication article by Ken Silverstein reported that U.S. utility system operators are concerned about the variability of wind generation and how it may affect system operations.

In light of some of the misleading claims expressed in the article, it is important to remember that large amounts of wind energy are already being reliably and cost-effectively integrated with the grid in the U.S. and around the world. In 2010, the Texas grid obtained 7.8% of its electricity from wind energy, with wind energy providing more than 25% of the grid’s electricity at one point. Over 15% of the electricity produced in Iowa now comes from wind energy. Similarly, European ...

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 Dr. Robert Peltier, editor-in-chief of POWER magazine, recently penned an article which purported to "bust" the "myth" that fossil fuels receive more subsidies than renewable energy.  In so doing, Dr. Peltier cherry-picked a single study that conveniently ignores the energy subsidies handed out for the past 90 years to the conventional energy industries in order to back up a falsehood.  As the Congressional Research Service puts it, “For more than half a century, federal energy tax policy focused almost exclusively on increasing oil and gas reserves and production.  There were no tax incentives promoting renewable energy or energy efficiency.”
 
Studies from the Government Accountability Office, Congressional Research Service, alongside studies commissioned by the Nuclear ...

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Recently, an article on clean energy by economist Jonathan Lesser came to my attention.  In brief, it argues that government support for renewable energy sources, whether through direct tax incentives or renewable energy standards requiring utilities to buy some percentage of their electricity from renewables, gives rise to Gresham's Law.  Less economical (clean) energy sources, according to Mr. Lesser, "drive out" more economical (dirty) sources due to government support, and society as a whole is rendered poorer as a result.

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Press release from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA):

"20 Megawatt wind turbines are feasible, according to a new report from the EU-funded UpWind project, published today at the EWEA 2011 Annual Event in Brussels.

"The UpWind project explored the design limits of upscaling wind turbines to 20 Megawatt (MW) and found that they would have rotor diameters of around 200 metres, compared to some 120 metres on ...

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Cross-posted from http://blog.ewea.org/2011/03/depending-on-oil-is-no-longer-justified-ewea2011-conference-is-told/#more-1388

Europeans must understand that continuing to depend on expensive oil for energy is a losing proposition, Denmark's Minister for Climate and Energy told people attending the opening session of EWEA2011 today in Brussels.
 
“Let there be no doubt, the new energy reality is here,” Lykke Friis said. “We simply must end our ...

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Cross-posted from http://blog.ewea.org/2011/03/emissions-reduction-target-should-be-increased-ministers-say/#more-1392

On the same day that EWEA2011 opened in Brussels, environment ministers from seven European nations urged Member States to endorse a 30% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2020 instead of the current target of 20%.
 
Lykke Friis, Denmark’s Minister of Climate and Energy, and six other EU  environment ministers meeting for the EU Environment Council released a letter ...

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Forbes magazine's blog recently carried an opinion article attacking wind energy by Larry Bell, a professor of space architecture at the University of Houston. Following is the response that I posted in the form of a series of comments:

Larry, there are so many false and misleading claims in your post, we’ll have to take them one at a time:

1. You begin by criticizing the May 2008 Department of Energy report, which concluded that wind energy could achieve a number of benefits by providing 20% of America’s electricity by the year 2030, as being too optimistic about wind energy’s future. First, I should point out that ...

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The Business section of Sunday's New York Times included a review of a book that sounds interesting: Diane Coyle's "The Economics of Enough: How to Run the Economy as if the Future Matters."  In reviewer Nancy F. Koehn's words, Ms. Coyle finds that "[t]HE world’s leading economies are facing crises related to their vulnerability to booms and busts, rising income inequality, unsustainable government obligations, climate change and a widespread erosion of public trust," and policy makers are responding by (Ms. Coyle quoted now) "borrowing from the future on a massive scale."

Reading about Ms. Coyle's book made me recall something I've ...

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"Anti-Wind NIMBYs [Not In My Back Yarders] Are [a] Small Minority," writes Brian Keane of SmartPower in a recent Huffington Post blog, and he proceeds to back it up with evidence:

- Most compellingly, Mr. Keane cites a recent independent telephone poll of residents living within six miles of a proposed wind project in the United Kingdom, a hotbed of increasingly nasty anti-wind activity since the mid-1990s.  The survey found 66% in favor of the project and 12% against it--not a "silent majority" against the project, not a close call, but overwhelming support.

- ...

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I've been impressed during the past few days by two separate posts on a Canadian wind blog, Harvesting Wind Support, and want to recommend it to readers looking for a thoughtful analysis of anti-wind groups and their arguments.

The first post, Pro-Wind … And Proud Of It, begins as follows: "I am Pro-Wind and I’ll tell you why. I’ve spent many hours reading all the arguments for and against wind turbines. If you were to measure the issue by bulk of material and sites on the internet alone, the anti-wind groups come out on the ...

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