Burbank Mulls Wind Buy

The City of Burbank, Calif., is scheduled this evening to consider buying wind power from the Milford wind project in Utah. If the purchase goes through, it will move Burbank closer to an already-established goal of obtaining 33% of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Regards,
Tom

Vail Daily Sees Growing Environmental Concern

Nice editorial in the Vail Daily about growing concern for the environment among local residents. It congratulates the Vail ski resort for buying wind power, Eagle County for buying hybrid vehicles, etc. Ski areas, which stand to see their business devastated by global warming, have been among the first companies nationwide to connect the dots between climate and renewable energy use. Vail ranks among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Top 25 green power buyers.

Regards,
Tom

The Wind Power Storage Myth

It seems so intuitive, so right: everyone knows from direct experience that the wind is variable, and so it really can't be a serious energy source without some form of storage, can it?

Of all of the myths about wind power (of which anti-wind folks, with their covert allies and backers in competing energy industries, are inventing new, creative additions daily), this one is probably the oldest and most difficult to stamp out. Only today, many news sources carried a summary by Reuters energy reporter Timothy Gardner of a new book, Lights Out, by Jason Makansi. The summary includes the following quote:

Wind power won't take off unless there's more investment in how to store the energy, according to Makansi.

I suppose it all depends on what you mean by "take off." Wind power generates a bit less than 1% of U.S. electricity today (it should cross the 1% line by the end of this year), so for me, "taking off" would mean getting to 10% or 20%, in the general range that natural gas (17%) and nuclear power (20%) generate today. Maybe Makansi has something higher in mind--setting an unrealistic bar is one of the easiest ways to belittle a new technology. But anyway . . .

Storage is not, repeat not, required for a significant expansion of wind power from its current level to a level 10 or 20 times as great, at which point it will be a major contributor to U.S. electricity supply. Variability of wind is best addressed by utilities in the same way they address variability in current generation and load, which is to control certain resources to match aggregate load. All existing resources occasionally shut down with no notice, and these forced outages require backup and reserves. Wind is only different in that its output changes are more gradual and can be greater in magnitude, and that is not necessarily more difficult to manage. Storage might be cost-effective for power system operators some day in the future, but is generally not cost-effective today, and is not required, either for conventional resources or for wind. As the U.S. Department of Energy puts it in an excellent short publication, Wind Energy Myths:

The utility system is . . . designed to accommodate load fluctuations, which occur continuously. This feature also facilitates accommodation of wind plant output fluctuations. In Denmark, Northern Germany, and parts of Spain, wind supplies 20% to 40% of electric loads without sacrificing reliability. When wind is added to a utility system, no new backup is required to maintain system reliability.

Ironically, Makansi's main theme is to flog something that is perfectly true: the fact that America's electricity transmission system is aging and inadequate and in desperate need of an overhaul. This is ironic because more transmission is exactly what is needed for the power system to handle more wind--the wind is always blowing somewhere, so shipping the wind-generated electricity from where it is being produced to where it can be used is key to using it as cheaply and effectively as possible.

Those who wish to dig more deeply into this topic will find an excellent collection of resources at the Utility Wind Integration Group site.

This is not to say that more storage would be bad: one of the truly exciting possibilities on the horizon is plug-in hybrid autos, which would allow wind power not just to supply electricity, but to replace a sizable chunk of the oil our nation uses for transportation. But we don't need more storage to use much more wind for electricity generation. Period.

Regards,
Tom

Renewable Energy: The Regional Debate

The U.S. Senate is currently debating a National Renewable Energy Standard. Under an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, electric utilities would be required to obtain a growing percentage of their electricity from renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, new hydro, solar, wind), with the percentage reaching 15% by 2020.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Bingaman amendment would be Congress's first major action to address the growing issue of global warming, Senate Republicans are blocking it by threatening a filibuster (meaning that 60 votes would be needed to pass it rather than a majority.) During the debate, much was made of the argument that some states are not windy, and would therefore be disadvantaged by the Bingaman amendment, and that it would "shift wealth" from one region to another. For example, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said, "We cannot ignore the reality that some regions of the country cannot meet the [standard]. Since they cannot produce it, they’ll have to pay a fine, a pretty whopping penalty."

It's an interesting and compelling point, if true. Would a Renewable Energy Standard really introduce a sweeping change into the way that energy is currently produced and distributed in the U.S.? Consider:

Most if not all states import fuel--coal from other states; natural gas from other states, Canada and overseas; uranium, ditto; oil from overseas (yes, some imported oil is indeed used to generate electricity, mostly in New England and Hawaii).

"Importing" wind--a domestic "fuel"--from state to state (via transmission lines) will benefit the whole country (due to reduced imports of natural gas and oil from overseas), and is not a departure from current practice on behalf of other fuels.

A very preliminary (all we have had time for so far) look at state-by-state distribution of commercial energy production reveals the following:

32 states have commercial wind installations (and at least one more will soon)
32 states have natural gas production
28 states have petroleum production
25 states have coal
3 states have uranium

Thus, wind is actually one of the most widely distributed natural resources. Also, it appears that huge transfers of wealth are no problem for opponents of the Bingaman amendment, as long as they are already happening--only modest future transfers that might run in some different direction need to be stamped out.

We’ve made investments to move natural gas, coal and uranium across state lines and, in some cases (e.g., building transmission lines to so-called "mine-mouth" electric power plants that are built next to coal mines), to use the fuel on location. Likewise, wind is a resource we should encourage all states to use.

(In addition, all of the Southeastern states that have poor wind resources have excellent biomass energy potential, according to the U.S. Department of Energy--but that's another story.)

The Bingaman amendment may come up soon for a vote in the Senate. If you support this first meaningful step to fight global warming, contact your Senator's office through the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and let him/her know you support the Bingaman Renewable Energy Standard. Or go to powerofwind.com.

Regards,
Tom

Senate Republicans Block Renewable Energy

Senate Republicans have threatened to filibuster against the Bingaman Renewable Energy Standard amendment. With the polls showing very strong, indeed overwhelming, support for clean alternative energy sources and for action against global warming, it's hard to understand this position. Nearly half of all states (24) have similar renewable energy standards already, and some have even passed new laws increasing the percentages of renewable energy required.

The Bingaman Renewable Energy Standard would:

Reduce global warming pollution from electric power plants;

Create brand new manufacturing industries with thousands of new jobs;

Revitalize rural communities through the increased tax base and payments to landowners that wind and other renewable energy projects bring;

Help meet America's steadily growing electricity demand;

Save consumers more than $100 billion through 2026.

If you support this first meaningful step to fight global warming, contact your Senator's office through the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and let him/her know you support the Bingaman Renewable Energy Standard. Or go to powerofwind.com.

Regards,
Tom

Maple Ridge Wind Farm Bird Collisions Few

The latest of many avian studies at wind farms has been released, a heavy-duty look at bird and bat kills at the new Maple Ridge wind project in upstate New York. The results?

Bird collisions were very few in number, which is typical of U.S. wind farms. Regular searches around 50 wind turbines found 125 birds (not all necessarily killed by the turbines).

Only one raptor (bird of prey) was found, an American kestrel (a common species).

Bat mortality was higher and remains an issue. 326 bats were found, equating to roughly 10-15 per megawatt of generating capacity. This is fewer than at Appalachian sites in Pennsylvania and West Virginia where the bat problem appears to be centered, but definitely not negligible. (The wind energy industry, Bat Conservation International, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are partners in a multi-year research effort to understand the bat collision problem and find ways to reduce mortality. Currently, that program is aimed at testing a sonic deterrent to warn bats away from wind farms.)

No threatened or endangered bats found. This continues the pattern at U.S. wind sites.

The detailed language from the Maple Ridge report provides some very interesting insights:

People/agencies who reviewed the proposed scope of work [for the study] included staffers from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), Environmental Design and Research (EDR), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, developers (PPM and Horizon), and others. Representatives from some or all of these groups have been included in a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), which has the responsibility of reviewing and commenting on progress reports, annual reports, and other updates from this project.

This is typical of wildlife studies at wind farm sites. Studies are often attacked by anti-wind groups on grounds that they are carried out by consulting firms that are supposedly pro-industry. However, a Technical Advisory Committee with government agency experts who have no vested interest is a common practice.

The methods used include searches under turbines in concert with studies of carcass removal rates (scavenging) and searcher efficiency rates.

Again typical: the firm conducting the study runs tests to determine how quickly birds and bats are removed from the site by predators and how good the individuals doing the ground searches are at finding dead animals.

The Maple Ridge project currently consists of 195 1.65-MW turbines, for a total of 322 MW of nameplate generating capacity. Each turbine is approximately 400 feet (122 meters) in height.

As with most turbine facilities across the United States, the numbers of fatalities of night migrants was fairly low at the Maple Ridge facility. Determining the exact number of night migrants is difficult, however, as the birds involved may be resident breeders. The numbers were especially small in comparison with fatality rates of these birds at tall, guyed communication towers in the Midwestern and eastern United States where fatalities sometimes involve hundreds or even thousands of birds in a single night or migration season.

Why are the numbers so low? We don't know for sure, but one major reason appears to be that turbines are lighted differently than communications towers: turbines have red flashing (strobe) lights, while communication towers also have steady-burning red lights. The steady-burning lights appear to attract migrating birds on foggy nights. Also, communications towers have miles of guy wire, a major hazard for disoriented birds circling a light, and are greater in height.

Those towers have two types of Federal Aviation Administration lighting (steady burning red L-810 and flashing red incandescent beacons – L-864), multiple sets of guy wires, and are almost always in excess of 500 feet (152 m). We conducted tests of night migrant incidents found at lit and unlit towers for both the 30 7-day search sites and the 10 1-day search sites . . . If the red flashing beacons attracted birds to turbines, a disproportionately greater number of these fatalities would have been found at turbines with lights and, or large-scale, multiple fatality events would have been observed. We did not see a clear relationship between the numbers of night migrant fatalities and the presence of L-864 red flashing beacons on turbines.

.

The Maple Ridge report also comments briefly on the question of whether bird collisions with wind turbines affect overall populations (total numbers) of bird species:

The eastern population of the Golden-crowned Kinglet, which was found most often during searches, is estimated to be decreasing across the US but stable or increasing in the Eastern US. (Table 21). Given the overall population level of this species (estimated 34 million birds), it is difficult to presume that collision mortality at the Maple Ridge [wind farm] has a significant adverse effect on population levels, even with respect to cumulative impacts of fatalities from many wind plants.

The population of the second most common find (Red-eyed vireo) is listed as increasing, with an estimated overall population level of 140 million. The only two species listed as significantly decreasing are the Red-winged Blackbird and the Common Grackle, both very common and wide ranging species.

Wind turbines remain the single most thoroughly studied of all sources of human-related bird mortality--see, for example, the WEST, Inc., wind/avian studies collection. Thousands of birds do die in collisions (with thousands of wind turbines) at wind farms across the U.S., but it is clear that wind farms remain an insignificant threat to birds, and that birds and wind power--even large amounts of wind power--can coexist. A recent National Academy of Sciences report found that in 2003, wind turbine kills amounted to less than .003% (three of every one hundred thousand) human-related bird deaths. At the same time:

A 2004 international scientific study concluded that one million species might be driven to extinction by global warming by the year 2050.

Wind energy is one of the technology "wedges" that other scientists have identified as being necessary to avoid this nightmare scenario.

Wind power also reduces air pollution, water pollution, mining and drilling--all of which have negative effects on wildlife.

Wind power challenges our ability to be numerate, to maintain perspective, to be rational and not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the very, very good. I believe how we deal with it will determine whether we are indeed up to the task of ending global warming.

Regards,
Tom

Wind Group Asks Support for RPS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 12, 2007 Contact:
Christine Real de Azua (202) 383-2508

STATEMENT BY THE AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION
ON A NATIONAL RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD (RPS)

AWEA urges Congress to enact strong Bingaman RPS,
oppose weakening Domenici Amendment

As the U.S. Congress takes up wide-ranging energy legislation, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) issued the following statement in support of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) proposed by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. Sen. Bingaman’s RPS would require that 15% of the country’s electricity come from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020.

“A strong RPS is an essential element of an effective national energy strategy: it can address the simultaneous challenges of growing electricity demand and climate change,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher.

Strike a real blow against global warming! Register your support for a strong RPS today!

“Wind energy technology is the single most cost-effective, zero-carbon energy option that we have available today. Our nation is also blessed with an abundance of solar and other renewable, zero-carbon energy sources. The Bingaman RPS provides the crucial long-term policy support that is needed for wind and all renewable energy technologies to become major contributors to electricity supply and solve the double challenge of global warming and growing electricity demand. Any attempts to weaken it should be opposed.”

There is broad support for a strong national RPS. A coalition including Fortune 500 companies, the United Steelworkers, and major environmental groups has sent a letter to Members of Congress urging adoption of a strong RPS.

AWEA opposes a proposal by Senator Pete Domenici, Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, that would undermine the RPS and introduce several serious loopholes. AWEA has sent a letter to Senate leaders respectfully urging a vote against it. The Domenici standard would weaken the RPS and:

* Authorize the Secretary of Energy to certify any form of energy as “clean;”
* Allow states to opt out of the bill’s requirements;
* Would continue a long history of playing politics with the climate issue.

AWEA, formed in 1974, is the national trade association of the U.S. wind energy industry. The association's membership includes turbine manufacturers, wind project developers, utilities, academicians, and interested individuals. More information on wind energy is available at the AWEA web site: www.awea.org.

# # #

Daschle, Industry Leaders: Global Warming Will Increasingly Push Wind Power Industry

The wind power industry can become a key contributor to the electricity resource mix, but it’s going to take stable and long-term policy to get there, said a lineup of WINDPOWER 2007 Conference & Exhibition panelists that included top industry executives along with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Speaking at a general session on expanding the wind industry, the panel—verbalizing the overall buzz at WINDPOWER 2007, which surpassed 6,500 attendees on its first full day—said that wind and renewables stand poised for major breakthroughs in terms of growth and penetration. Daschle said the renewables industry has the potential to have the “same economic impact as the dot-com revolution.” He called for a long-term extension of the production tax credit and a federal renewable portfolio standard—two specific policies that will likely be taken up in Congress in the coming weeks and months.

The panel consensus was that, as Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council, said, “Climate change will increasingly be the determining factor” in terms of policy affecting wind energy. The public, panelists said, is coming to understand the necessity of addressing global warming and the importance of renewables; however, members of the panel said, the industry needs to do even more in communicating this message. “I think one of our priorities has to be to make this case to the public,” said Robert Lukefahr, president, Power Americas at BP Alternative Energy.

As an executive with BP, Lukefahr offered a perspective of the broader energy industry, saying that achieving 20% wind penetration seems “nearly impossible” but that it actually is achievable, especially when considering the energy industry’s history of reaching large-scale goals. One example: in the mid 1970s, the oil industry was limited to drilling in water depths of 500 feet; now it drills approximately five miles down.

Regarding global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, Steven Chalk, deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency at the U.S. Department of Energy, said it is imperative that the nation scale up in wind power and other renewables. “Energy efficiency is not going to get us to our goals,” he said. Agreeing with Chalk, Lukefahr illustrated the point by saying that if all the automobiles in the world ran on hydrogen, greenhouse gas emissions would still rise because of the huge role power plants play in contributing to the problem.

On the technology side, GE Energy Vice President of Renewable Energy Vic Abate said that ramping up to 20% wind will involve a “multi-generational product plan.” He projects a 15% increase in capacity factor on new turbines, although the overall fleet of turbines in use in the U.S. naturally will vary in technology because of their varying ages. That’s a natural evolution, he said, likening it to advances in fossil-fuel plants between the 1950s and now.

Governors, Mayor Help Kick Off WINDPOWER 2007 with Bold Vision for Wind

Two governors, a former Senate majority leader, the mayor of Los Angeles, and a host of top industry leaders on Monday kicked off the WINDPOWER 2007 Conference & Exhibition by saying wind energy—with the right governmental policies—is one of the key solutions to global warming.

AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher set the stage for the morning’s dialogue, sharing the industry’s vision for 20% of the nation’s electricity needs to come from wind by 2030—an initiative that the industry, AWEA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other stakeholders spent the last year working on after first unveiling it at WINDPOWER 2006 in Pittsburgh, Pa. “That’s a bold vision. It’s not a forecast, but it’s a plausible scenario,” said Swisher. “It requires a transformation of the industry.”

Swisher, along with panelists at the general session that followed (see related story below), underscored the challenges of achieving such a vision. In order to reach the 20% benchmark, policy support, such as the federal production tax credit (PTC) and a federal renewable portfolio standard, would need to be long-term and stable, enabling the industry’s value chain to be augmented and made more efficient. A 20% level of wind penetration, which would mean installing over 300 gigawatts in capacity, also requires building the necessary transmission infrastructure to carry wind power from wind-rich areas to load centers.

As part of the 20% initiative, American Electric Power developed a map of what a transmission system might look like with 20% wind penetration. The cost to build such an infrastructure would be $60 billion, AEP concluded. (Regardless of the role wind plays, the nation’s transmission infrastructure is in need of major upgrade.)

Swisher also said that for wind to realize its potential, geographically large electricity markets and regional transmission organizations such as the PJM Interconnection would need to be the norm, thus maximizing wind’s strengths while minimizing its variable nature. Other challenges, said Swisher, include the need to streamline the siting and permitting processes.

“We realize that it’s not going to be easy, but I think the industry is ready to play,” he said.

Governors Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.) and Chet Culver (D-Iowa) both extolled the economic benefits of wind power and spoke of the renewable resource in terms of the energy security that it fosters. “It’s good business, it’s big business, and it’s good for Montana’s economy,” said Schweitzer.

The Montana governor showed his understanding of the integral part transmission plays in wind’s growth, referencing the proposed Montana-Alberta Tie Line project as well as the Northern Lights line, which would link Montana wind power with the major load centers of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nev., and Phoenix, Ariz.

Culver was equally enthusiastic and knowledgeable, speaking of the three wind industry manufacturers that have planted roots in his state, the most recent one being Acciona, which just broke ground on its facility in Iowa. “I believe the key to this new 21 st century expedition begins with renewable energy, and especially wind power, and that’s why I’m here today,” said Culver.

U.S. Representative Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) was an appropriate and noteworthy part of the lineup because of his background in the wind energy industry and commitment to renewables in Congress. In addition to underscoring the importance of such policies as the PTC, McNerney reminisced on how the industry has grown since his early days in the business. He said the turnout at WINDPOWER 2007, expected to approach 7,000 attendees, “shows not only the enthusiasm but the energy of this industry.”

The Los Angeles setting for WINDPOWER 2007 is particularly appropriate because of the city’s commitment to green power and the environment under the leadership of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D). The city will get 20% of its electricity from renewables by 2010, the mayor said, and also has a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 35% below 1990 levels by 2030. “Very few issues have greater meaning for the future of the city of Los Angeles,” said the mayor.

--from the American Wind Energy Association's Wind Energy Weekly, special WINDPOWER 2007 Conference & Exhibition Daily Edition.

Awards at WINDPOWER 2007 Highlight Wind Energy's Emergence into Mainstream

The American Wind Energy Association will recognize corporate and industry leaders, national policymakers, experts, and renewable energy advocates at the WINDPOWER 2007 Conference & Exhibition, in Los Angeles, Calif., June 4-6.

WINDPOWER is now the world’s largest annual wind energy conference and trade show.

“The wind energy industry is delighted to honor business and industry leaders, lawmakers, advocates, and many others for their dedication and leadership in the development of wind power,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. “By advancing wind power, these leaders are advancing an essential element of the solution to global warming and helping power a cleaner, stronger America.”

The following honorees will be recognized:

Corporate Leadership: Starbucks. For leadership in using as much as 20% renewable energy to power the company’s operations. Starbucks shows by example that good environmental practices and good business aren’t mutually exclusive.

Technical Achievement: Dick Piwko, Nick Miller, Gary Jordan, and Kara Clark, GE Energy, wind integration study team. For significant contributions to understanding the technical and economic aspects of utility wind integration through their analytical work on wind integration in New York, California and Canada.

Achievement in Operations: Jamie Thompson, Horizon Wind Energy ( Blue Canyon I & II). For developing successful, effective working relationships with landowners, customer utilities and service contractors, and for maximizing plant performance through highly sophisticated use of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems, high voltage system, and knowledge of the plants’ wind turbines.

Industry Person of the Year: Jim Walker, enXco. For his vision and efforts to help the wind industry move forward in two areas of significance: (1) getting ahead of the wind/wildlife siting challenges curve, and (2) establishing a wind industry road map.

Wind Energy Advocacy: Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT). For playing an important leadership role in victories for renewable energy over the last 15 years, including a California Renewables Portfolio Standard, resolution of avian siting issues in Altamont (California), acquisition of renewable energy by the city of Los Angeles, breakthrough on transmission issues, and progressive climate change initiatives.

Special Achievement: Andy Linehan, PPM Energy. For gifted advocacy and leadership in responsibly permitting and siting wind projects, and actively contributing to the development of new voluntary guidelines and siting policies across the U.S.

Commercial Achievement: AWEA member companies Gamesa Energia, Clipper Windpower, Suzlon Wind Energy, DMI Industries, LM Glasfiber and TPI Composites. For their efforts to increase the manufacturing of wind turbines in the U.S. The new facilities these companies have opened and are planning demonstrate that wind power development is a vital and fast-growing source of new jobs here in the U.S.

Congressional Leadership:

Senator Charles Grassley: For outstanding leadership in support of wind energy and the wind energy production tax credit (PTC). Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) is recognized as the “father” of this effective and popular credit.

Senator Harry Reid: For excellence in leadership in support of wind and other renewable technologies. Senator Reid (D-Nev.) has been a strong and consistent champion of renewable energy and helped ensure passage of a renewables portfolio standard in the Senate in 2005.

Senator Max Baucus: For steadfast leadership in support of windand other renewable technologies. Senator Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is advocating a long-term extension of the PTC.

Lifetime Achievement - Dr. Forrest (Woody) Stoddard: (Already awarded.) To a visionary leader, teacher, and pioneer, in recognition of years of outstanding industry leadership and support.

AWEA Executive Director Welcomes WINDPOWER 2007 Attendees

Welcome to Los Angeles and the WINDPOWER 2007 Conference & Exhibition!

On behalf of the AWEA Board of Directors and staff, I hope you find this week an invaluable ‘window’ on the state of the wind industry. We are excited about the industry’s future and believe that this week’s events can help build a foundation for sustained growth for decades to come.

We are gathered in Los Angeles around a theme of compelling interest to AWEA members – “Growing the Wind Business” – and many of the presentations will be focused on exploring that theme. What are the challenges we must confront if we are to sustain the industry’s record growth? What are the steps we must take today to ensure that the industry has steady growth for decades to come? What are the public benefits that would accrue from a wind industry that is 20 times larger than today’s industry?

Last year, President Bush recognized that this industry has the potential to provide as much as 20% of the nation’s electricity. We’ve taken the President’s statement as an invitation to look closely at just how much potential this industry has as well as the steps we would need to take to achieve that potential.

We are experiencing another record year in 2007, and the size of this event reflects the substantial growth of the industry. The U.S. was the largest single market for wind in the world in 2005 and 2006, and, with continued policy support, we expect strong demand in this country for years to come. Not surprisingly, given the industry growth, WINDPOWER 2007 will be our largest conference in history, with more than 6,500 attendees gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The exhibition is especially impressive, with 419 exhibitors expected—a 40% increase in the size of the exhibition compared to last year’s record event! For those of you that are veterans of the industry, think back a decade or so to earlier AWEA trade shows and be amazed at how far the wind industry has come in such a short time. I want to thank our exhibitors for making such a significant investment of their time and resources, and pledge to you our commitment to work to ensure that this week is worth every minute of your time.

As the scope of this event has grown, it has become an increasingly complex management challenge. On the program side, we were faced with an enormous stack of thoughtfully constructed abstracts from many expert presenters, and the great majority of the abstracts would have been a positive contribution to the agenda. Unfortunately, there was no way to make room for them all, but the strong interest in participating is a major contribution to the quality of the event.

The Conference Program Committee was led by two very strong and capable Co-Chairs – Adam Umanoff of Chadbourne & Parke, LLP, on the business side, and Bob Zavadil of Enernex Corp., on the technical side. Adam and Bob assembled a well-qualified Program Committee representing a wide range of expertise and spent an entire day with the Committee reviewing abstracts and building the strongest possible program. As you will be able to tell, the process worked. Thanks to Adam and Bob for doing an amazing job as Program Chairs for this impressive event.

I would also like to single out AWEA’s Conference and Education Department—directed by Stephen Miner, and including Stefanie Brown, Sakura Emerine, Lori Rugh, Marissa Bundy, Monica Wolfe, and Michael Swinburne—for the countless hours they have invested in making this the best possible conference it can be. They have succeeded in staying on top of a growing number of details and have really taken this conference to the next level of professionalism. I want to express my appreciation to them and to every member of the AWEA staff for the huge effort that was required to bring this event together.

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to our sponsors for this event, who are listed in this program. Special thanks go to our Giga-Watt level sponsors: NRG Systems, GE Energy, and Michael Best & Friedrich, LLP. The support from these companies and all of our other sponsors has allowed us to enhance the conference in a variety of ways for your benefit.

Thanks to all of you for joining us here in Los Angeles and welcome to WINDPOWER 2007!

Randall Swisher
Executive Director
American Wind Energy Association

Wind-Powered Pizza Leads Green Business Wave

Yesterday's Baltimore Sun includes an AP wire story on Galactic Pizza, a Minnesota pizza delivery firm that features electric cars and buys wind power.

Galactic Pizza emphasizes environmental sustainability and protection in its business practices, uses organic and locally grown ingredients when possible, and donates a small portion of its profit to hunger relief and other charities.

"I wanted to do good for people, I wanted to not, at the very least, be a burden on society and try to even contribute to it," said Pete Bonahoom, Galactic Pizza's 29-year-old owner.

Excellent short article, check it out. Additional resource: the Center for Small Business and the Environment.

Readers who wish to buy wind power to cover their own energy needs can do so. If you don't feel that you can afford to go 100% wind, a very inexpensive option is to buy 10% or 20%. For the average household, the cost will be 5-10 cents a day . . .

For info on green power suppliers, see "Your Electric Choices" at www.green-e.org.

Regards,
Tom

Oregon's RPS Termed 'Historic'

The Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard for May 27 has a strongly positive article on the state's newly approved renewable portfolio standard, saying in part:

By a surprisingly lopsided 41-19 vote, the House approved a bill that requires Oregon's biggest utilities, including the Eugene Water & Electric Board, to generate 25 percent of their power by 2025 from renewable energy sources. The Senate passed a similar version of the bill last month, and is expected to quickly endorse the House changes and send the measure to Gov. Ted Kulongoski to be signed into law.

Oregonians should be proud of this historic legislation, which should help limit carbon emissions while at the same time promoting alternative energy and boosting the state's economy. The proposal's scope and complexity, along with the initial wariness of powerful utility and business interests, made its passage anything but a foregone conclusion.

As I have commented elsewhere, hopefully "business interests" will come to see that this type of legislation is in their best interest, because (1) it helps to stabilize energy prices (wind power, which likely will provide a major chunk of the electricity from renewable sources, uses no fuel and is therefore immune to fuel price spikes on world markets); and (2) it reduces the risk of future carbon emissions regulation and/or taxation.

Congratulations to Oregon! That's a standard of 25% of electricity supply from renewable energy sources by 2025.

Regards,
Tom

Wind Turbines and Air Pollution

(Sorry for backing up here: this is something that deserves lengthy treatment, and the long holiday weekend in the U.S. finally provides the time I needed.)

Christopher Mitchell at the blog Energista does a good job of commenting on a Matt Wald story in the May 4 New York Times entitled "Wind Farms May Not Lower Air Pollution, Study Suggests." You can view the entire Wald story here.

Some additional comments:

Wind Farms May Not Lower Air Pollution, Study Suggests
By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON, May 3 - Building thousands of wind turbines would probably not reduce the pollutants that cause smog and acid rain, but it would slow the growth in emissions of heat-trapping gases, according to a study released Thursday by the National Academy of Sciences.

This headline and lead are very strange, because neither of these findings appears to be news. The reason wind power, in theory, won't reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides is that nationwide emissions of these pollutants is limited by law--no matter how many wind turbines are installed, the limit doesn't change. As Christopher Mitchell points out, though, since wind generators emit no pollutants, more wind should mean that the cost of complying with the limits is reduced. The limits on sulfur dioxide were part of the Clean Air Act of 1990, so this is a 17-year-old story.

With respect to carbon dioxide, the primary "heat-trapping gas," there are no limits, and so more wind generation does indeed reduce CO2 emissions.

So why the peculiar lead and headline?

Even the scale of local damage from wind farms is unclear. Bats and raptors are thought to be the animals most threatened by wind turbines because they reproduce more slowly. But scientists base estimates on fairly primitive methods, like counting animal carcasses nearby and hoping that few have been carried off by animals, said Paul G. Risser, chairman of the academy's study.

I'm not sure I'd call this "primitive." It's the standard method that is used by wildlife biologists to study and report on bird (or bat) mortality caused by collisions with structures of all types, such as communications towers, buildings, and even automobiles. Typically, estimates of "predation" (carcasses being carried off by animals) are developed at each site by leaving carcasses on the ground and seeing how swiftly they are removed. These estimates (for example, 25% removed within a week) are then included when the scientists conducting the study extrapolate a range of total mortality from the dead bodies that are found.

"If 100 bats are killed, we don't know whether that's 100 out of 10 million or 100 out of 100 million," Dr. Risser said.

Excellent point. More federal research dollars invested in getting a handle on bird and bat (especially bat) populations would be a very good thing. At present, almost nothing is known about bat populations. Also, though, it is quite interesting that neither the New York Times nor the National Academy of Sciences study mentions a currently ongoing bat research program that is jointly funded by Bat Conservation International, several wind power companies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. More info about this here.

At the moment, the research is focused on testing a sonic deterrent that would warn bats away from wind farms. Much more testing and engineering work needed before it can be declared a solution.

And researchers do not know whether newer windmills, which have huge blades that rotate slowly, are any safer for birds and bats than older models, which spin more like airplane propellers.

True:

1) Some studies of raptor vision suggest that slower-rotating blades should be easier to see. But it's almost impossible to test this in the field. The only way to do it would be to install one type of machine, then remove it and install the other, measuring mortality at each for the same period of time. You'd also have to hope that nothing else changed in the meantime.

2) The numbers of birds that are killed at most wind sites are so low that studies of this question are unlikely to be fruitful.

Wind power could also reduce coal-plant carbon dioxide, which is thought to cause climate change, but the impact may be small, the report said. By 2025, wind turbines could cut carbon dioxide output by 4.5 percent compared with what it would otherwise have been, but this "would only slow the increase," said Dr. Risser. "It wouldn't result in a decrease in the amount of CO2."

The study relied on an Energy Department projection that in the next 15 years, onshore wind capacity would range from 19 to 72 gigawatts, or 2 percent to 7 percent of the nation's generating capacity. The actual impact would be smaller, however, because wind machines run fewer hours than coal or nuclear plants.

As a matter of fact, they run about the same number of hours (65% to 80% of the time), but unlike coal or nuclear plants, wind turbines usually generate at well below their peak capacity. As I've indicated elsewhere in this blog, this is one way of looking through the telescope. Looking through the other end, we find that using essentially the same data and statistics, wind turbines would cut new CO2 emissions between now and 2020 by 30%.

Wind output quadrupled from 2000 to 2006, but wind turbines still produce less than 1 percent of the electricity used in the United States. And the amount of wind energy that can be integrated into the electricity grid is limited, the researchers said. The maximum that could be accommodated, Dr. Policansky said, is probably 20 percent of the nation's electricity use.

These last two sentences that I have bolded are probably the clearest example of minimizing wind's contribution, otherwise known as damning with faint praise. First, we know little about what the upper limit on wind is, and it will be many years before we have solid knowledge. But second and more important, 20% is huge. It's as much as nuclear power generates today, and more than any other source except coal. The fact that we could get that much electricity from a new clean alternative energy source is the real news contained in this story. It would be great to see a story in the Times someday with the headline, "Wind Farms Could Provide 20% of U.S. Electricity, Study Says."

Regards,
Tom

Arctic Ice Melts, PepsiCo Goes Green

Bad news: the Arctic Ocean's ice cover is melting more rapidly than expected. This is a serious issue, since open water reflects less of the sun's heat than ice, and rapid ice melting therefore has the potential to create a feedback loop.

Good news: PepsiCo announced a purchase of more than 1.1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, enough to power all of its U.S. operations, vaulting it to the top of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) list of green power purchasers by a wide margin.

Let's keep hoping for more good news.

Regards,
Tom

Green Power Credit Card Rewards

Wells Fargo & Co. said April 19 that it is rolling out a new green rewards program for users of its credit card. When users earn points for making purchases with the card, they can redeem them for renewable energy certificates. For example, the company said, "For 5,000 points, cardholders can support 6,000 kilowatt hours of green power . . . equivalent to the clean air benefits of three acres of pine forest storing carbon for one year." Wells Fargo is also the largest U.S. purchaser of green power, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's official listing.

More Retailers Go for Green Power

Baltimore, Md., retailer bluehouse said April 19 that it is going carbon-neutral, purchasing wind power certificates from Wind Current, a Baltimore company that sells renewable energy certificates to mid-Atlantic homes and businesses. Also in Maryland, Fitzgerald Auto Malls is buying clean energy from wind power for its 12 dealerships in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Good to see more and more companies joining the green power bandwagon--those of us concerned about environmental and energy issues owe them all a vote of thanks. Meanwhile, I'm heading to Michigan this evening for meetings of the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC), a multi-stakeholder group that seeks to promote dialogue about issues relating to wind development in the U.S., and the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum. The NWCC meeting will include a forum on "Wind Energy and Economic Development," something that should be of huge interest in Michigan, given the struggles that state has had with declining employment in the auto industry.

Regards,
Tom

Yahoo Logo: Green for Earth Day

Check it out! For those who see this too late, the Y is represented by a wind turbine rotor, which spins and produces the electricity to power the exclamation point, which turns into a compact fluorescent lightbulb. Very cool.

Wind Power News Nuggets

It's been an unusual week for wind power news items. Besides the big stuff, like Spanish utility giant Iberdrola acquiring wind developer CPV Wind Ventures, LLC, there were a number of interesting smaller tidbits ("straws in the wind?"). Here are a few:

Eagles Soar With Wind: The Philadelphia Eagles will reimburse their employees who live in local areas of Pennsylvania and New Jersey for purchasing wind power for their households. Eagles owner Christina Lurie notes that the environmental impact of professional sports games is huge (driving, trash, etc.) and that they provide a great educational opportunity. . . .

Man Avoids Jail Due to Wind: Not going to link to this one or mention any names so as not to cause further embarrassment, but it's true. A man convicted of driving under the influence received a suspended sentence this week, at least in part because he said he is a construction worker and will be starting work on a wind farm soon, enabling him to promptly pay his fine . . .

Dutch Firm Introduces Wind-Powered Light: Dutch design firm Demakers has developed a self-contained wind-powered lighting fixture (click on "Light Wind" after following the link), saying you can enjoy it "every summer evening until forever" . . .

Burgerville Wind Promo: OK, maybe this isn't new, but it's news to us: Burgerville, a restaurant chain in the Portland, Ore., area that is buying 100% wind power, has a promo going where children buying happy meals receive a printed card describing a wind farm and wind energy and decals to stick on it. . . .

Hope you had a good week, too.