Business Solutions: Supporting Your Needs
Every day AWEA is working with individual members who care about wind power and who want to do business in the industry.
STRATEGIC POLICY MAKING: Creating The Market
AWEA is helping drive demand for wind power in the U.S. and building long-term markets for wind energy on several fronts:
Federal Legislative Policy: The U.S. wind power industry is back at work with renewed momentum following extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) by Congress as part of the Jan. 1 legislation to avert the “fiscal cliff.” The wind energy PTC, and an extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), important to small community and offshore projects, will allow continued growth of the energy source that has been 35% of all new electric generation in America over the past five years, with manufacturing factories or wind farms in all 50 states. The extension will cover all wind projects that start construction before 2014. Companies that manufacture wind turbines and install them sought that definition to allow for the industry’s 18-24 months business timeline for building projects.
Regulatory Policy: One example of the regulatory side of the equation is in the area of transmission, which is crucial to wind power development. AWEA is working with federal regulators on how transmission is planned and paid for. Our progress to date would indicate that when all of the near-term transmission projects are built, we could access enough new wind energy project locations to double the amount of wind installed across the U.S.
Other 2012 accomplishments by AWEA in the federal regulatory arena include:
• Engaging in a variety of processes related to wildlife, sound and other issues that must be addressed in order to expand the cost-effective deployment of wind energy in a timely manner.
• Representing the industry in several forums related to integrating wind energy into the grid to ensure fair treatment for renewable energy and limit costs.
• Fostering open dialogue with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in order to protect the industry’s workforce and establishing training programs to serve a maturing industry.
• Working with other offshore wind advocacy organizations, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to reduce the federal permitting timeline for offshore wind energy projects, working with the Department of Energy on R&D activities that will help to lower the cost of deploying offshore wind energy and engaging with coastal states to foster state collaboration and develop a domestic supply chain.
State Policy: AWEA reaches far beyond Washington, DC to support policies that matter and originate right in your backyard. On the state policy front, AWEA coordinates with its regional partners to advocate for measures that create a supportive business environment for wind power.
In 2012, AWEA efforts at the State Policy level focused on the following efforts:
• Strengthen Regulatory Support of Wind: Educating state regulators, who are becoming increasingly crucial as decision makers, on the economic, reliability, and environmental attributes of wind. In 2013, AWEA and its regional partners will build on several years of successful effort to raise the visibility of wind with regulators, working in a range of proceedings, including informal meetings, NARUC outreach and specific dockets that could create new demand for wind via replacement power for retiring generation.
• Make the Business Case for Wind to State and Regional Policy Makers: Governors, legislators, regulators, and stakeholders are giving increasing scrutiny to renewable energy policies in the face of low gas prices, continuing economic weakness, and pressure from competing generators. The analytics and the messaging to make the business case for growing wind generation is an essential pre-condition to the legislative and regulatory advocacy work described above.
Championing the Industry: Our members know wind power makes good sense. It makes good economic sense, and it makes good energy sense. Each and every day, AWEA’s Public Affairs team plays both offense and defense, trumpeting American wind energy’s win-win message while also defending the industry from attacks and misinformation that arises in the media.
Examples of focus areas in 2012 included:
• Provide useful publications and tools to stay informed, such as Wind Energy SmartBrief and Wind Energy Weekly.
• Offering your company's top spokespeople the chance to participate in AWEA's Speakers Bureau, with training and regular updates as well as media bookings and speaking opportunities.
STRATEGIC BUSINESS DECISIONS: Making Smart Decisions
AWEA’s active Industry Data and Analysis team provides energy sector statistics, wind project and manufacturing data, market forecasts, and overall data on wind energy benefits. In addition to the AWEA U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report, the team issues Quarterly Market Reports and Webinars to ensure AWEA Business Members have the necessary information to solve business challenges and succeed in the marketplace.
2012 Wind Energy Industry Results:
• 13,124 MW of wind capacity installed during 2012; a 28% growth rate; can power 14.7 million American homes.
• 2012 was the largest year in U.S., and largest fourth quarter ever.
• Wind power was #1 in new capacity installed in 2012.
• The 13,124 MW of new wind during 2012 represented $25 billion in annual private investment.
• 60 GW milestone reached for cumulative installed wind capacity – 95.9 million metric tons of CO2 avoided, or 4.2% of power sector emissions.
• 45,100 turbines are now installed across 39 states & Puerto Rico.
• During the fourth quarter of 2012, Texas led the nation in new wind installations with 1,289 MW, followed by California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa.
• Over the entire year, four states installed more than 1,000 MW. Texas led with 1,826 MW, California came in second place with 1,656 MW, Kansas installed 1,440 MW and Oklahoma installed 1,127 MW. Illinois rounded out the top five with 823 MW.
• The 4,414 turbines installed during the fourth quarter of 2012 had an average turbine rating of 1.92 MW. In 2012, there were 6,743 turbines installed with an average turbine rating of 1.95 MW. More than 1,000 of these turbines were on a hub height of 100 meters.
NETWORKING: CREATE LONG LASTING RELATIONSHIPS
Active Committees & Working Groups: Network, Connect, Advance the Industry
AWEA’s committees and working groups provide an opportunity for industry members to network and get to know one another – all while working on initiatives that truly advance the U.S. wind energy industry. Click here to learn more about the committees and working groups you can be part of (in almost all cases at no additional cost to you or your organization) and then let us know where you’d like to get more involved.
Networking, Networking, Networking…
In our efforts to enable you to build your network of business contacts, AWEA is continually working to stay at the cutting edge of empowering technology that helps you grow your business. This year we introduced tools like “Attendee Connect” so you can link with contacts before, during and after select AWEA events including WINDPOWER. The tool even interfaces with LinkedIn. And that’s just one recent example of how AWEA is building on the second-to-none networking opportunities that we offer at AWEA events.
VISIBILITY: CREATING BRAND AWARENESS
Brand Awareness Solutions
AWEA encourages and facilitates companies to connect with one another. Our Sales, Membership & Business Development staff have created a whole menu of opportunities for our members to foster brand awareness through sponsorships and exhibiting opportunities at various AWEA events throughout the year but also through publications such as the Wind Energy Weekly, the Membership Directory, and Event Show Guides. To learn more about how AWEA can offer a custom solution, please contact Mike Swinburne.
WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition
As a business group, we recognize our key role in helping you foster and grow your business. Through successful events like WINDPOWER 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia, we are providing you with year-round forums to build your network and build your business. Our new Board Chair, project developer Tom Carnahan, alluded to this in his remarks at WINDPOWER; there he reminisced about how, largely through relationships forged right on the WINDPOWER exhibition floor, he went from being one guy in a pickup truck talking to Missouri farmers to developing 1,000 megawatts of projects that are now spinning. We will continue this tradition of fostering business growth for all of our members at WINDPOWER 2013 in Chicago, Illinois, May 5-8. This event inevitably will be the networking hub for the industry’s many developers, turbine manufacturers and supply chain companies—and, in fact, Chicago was home to one of the largest WINDPOWER shows ever—WINDPOWER 2009, which drew over 23,000 attendees. So get ready for a fantastic show in the Windy City.
VALUE: AWEA COMES TO YOU
Going Regional
When it comes down to it, wind power issues are often local and regional in scope. Beginning in 2012, we piloted our first-ever AWEA Regional Events so that industry members could tackle issues at the regional and local levels and network with those who do business in the same regions of the country. We had a very successful opening series of these regional events in:
• Portland, ME covering the Northeast region in September 2012
• Houston, TX covering the South Central region in December 2012
• San Diego, CA covering the Western region in January 2013
For the remainder of 2013, AWEA is looking to further modify and expand these types of regional and state-oriented events. The next scheduled event is our Northwest Regional Summit in Portland, OR.
Click here for information on any upcoming AWEA event and how you can expand your business and make new connections through the most comprehensive set of wind power events serving the wind energy industry, created by the U.S. wind energy industry.
In summary, we want to remind you that AWEA’s success is built from the ground up, organized by our members and for our members. We are focused on growing the wind energy market while also helping you build your business in the U.S. wind energy industry. So let us know how we can offer new, additional member benefits and how we can help provide business solutions or opportunities to aid your business. Contact membership@awea.org if you have any questions at any time.
