Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

It’s a good thing the WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition is an annual event. The wind power industry moves so fast, the conference couldn’t afford to take a year off.

When WINDPOWER 2010 wrapped last May, participants left Dallas with both briefcases and minds chock-full of information on the top policy issues, the latest technology buzz, the key market trends, and the most promising business contacts.

Fast-forward 12 months: policy questions have shifted, the technology has advanced, the market dynamic has grown more complex, and new companies have entered the industry that attendees may want to meet.

What excites Conference Program Co-Chair Owen Clay ...

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Last year, the WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition featured a man who held the top post in government. Gracing the bill this year is one of the biggest names in business. Last year’s keynote speaker is known as having a fairly reserved disposition. "Colorful maverick" might characterize the image of this year’s speaker.

One thing the two men have in common: renewable energy.

When last year’s speaker, former President George W. Bush, served as the governor of Texas, he supported passage of a trailblazing renewable electricity standard along with a market structure and transmission policies that have since catapulted the state to the number-one position in wind energy ...

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Wind speeds over the vast bulk of the United States, including all of the windy Great Plains, will be largely unaffected by global climate change over the next 30-50 years, according to a new study from researchers at Indiana University.

The report appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition, and is described by Science Daily as "the first analysis of long-term stability of wind over the U.S."  Previously, a number of studies have predicted that climate change will cause global winds to diminish, but those studies have not been supported by actual observations over time of wind speeds ...

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Federal incentives of various types for energy sources have been in place for nearly 100 years, and they've played a useful role in helping develop our nation's abundant resources and propel America's economy to world leadership.

Going forward, we at the American Wind Energy Association would like to see the following principles applied to federal energy incentives:

First, knowing we have spent nearly 100 years subsidizing fossil fuels and conventional energy, current energy incentives should be consistent with current national energy goals. If goals include security, diversity, clean, and homegrown energy, incentives should be directed primarily toward technologies that have the ability to deliver on those goals today and in the future. Clear use of incentives ...

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Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu spoke yesterday at Dartmouth College, near my home town of Norwich, Vermont, and our local newspaper quoted him as saying that China's electric transmission system can carry power farther and more efficiently and that by contrast, U.S. transmission lines lose "as much as 80 percent of energy when transmitting electricity over long distances."
 
Now of course, it's not always easy to know what was actually said and perhaps reported inaccurately.  But since the question of transmission line losses has come up occasionally in the past, and anti-wind individuals have questioned whether electricity can be transmitted efficiently from windy rural areas of the U.S. to population centers, we'd like to set the record straight.
 
The U.S. ...

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Boulder, Colorado, April 26--Today, Alstom Power, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) dedicated the installation of a 3-MW, 60-Hz Alstom ECO 100 wind turbine, the first in the U.S., at NREL's National Wind Technology Center. 

The 100+ guests weathered wind, rain and snow to celebrate a three-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement that will enable Alstrom and NREL to investigate Alstom's Pure Torque power transfer system, mechanical load reduction strategies, dynamic loads on the wind turbine tower and foundation structures, and LIDAR-assisted control algorithms.  The 3-MW Alstom turbine towers above the nearby 1.5-MW GE and 2.3-MW Siemens turbines with its 90-meter tower and 100-meter rotor diameter.  Alstom ...

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The Huffington Post yesterday featured an article on the "10 least green states" in the U.S., based on an analysis by 24/7 Wall St.  While some were no surprise, the list included a few that have been truly outstanding in their development of wind power.

Topping the group of wind leaders on the list is Texas.  The ...

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Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) called today for consideration of repeal of federal multi-billion-dollar subsidies to the oil & gas industries, observing that the national Treasury needs money and that oil and gas companies should pay "their fair share."

Certainly, subsidies to the fossil fuels industries, some of which are permanent fixtures of the U.S. tax code and have been in place for nearly 100 years, deserve serious scrutiny.  For more on this issue, see this previous post (

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A little over a month ago, I posted an article on this blog entitled "Attention disinformers: Last chance to belittle wind."  It expressed some amazement that Japan's nuclear accident had led to a barrage of attacks on wind power, as nuclear and coal advocates sought to reassure themselves that wind was not a threat, and it noted that wind is growing so rapidly that those who diminish its importance will soon no longer be able to pass the laugh test.  How can you pretend, for example, that a technology that has installed 35% of all new electric generating capacity in the U.S. for the past four years--more than nuclear and ...

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That's the provocative suggestion of Australian Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at the University of Sydney, whose recent opinion column effectively demolishes the claim of Dr. Nina Pierpont, a pediatrician, that wind turbine sound is responsible for an ill-defined and poorly documented ailment she calls Wind Turbine Syndrome.

Prof. Chapman lists the gaping holes in Dr. Pierpont's research--holes that would disqualify her work from serious attention were it not for the many individuals and groups casting about for some reason--any reason--to argue against wind power other than its appearance.  And he cites the findings of a recent Dutch ...

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