Close Vote Likely on Bingaman Renewable Energy Standard

Inside word on the Bingaman Renewable Portfolio Standard is that the vote will be very tight. If you support this concept, the time to weigh in is right now. You can reach any Senator's office through the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Further information here.

Regards,
Tom

Wind Power and Land Use

Quick factoid: for wind power to provide 20% of U.S. electricity, roughly 33,000 square miles of land would be required. This is an amount of land equal to approximately one-third of Colorado, one-third of Wyoming, or one-fifth of Montana. Further, 95% to 98% of that 33,000 square miles would continue to be available for farming or ranching--the actual footprint of the wind turbines and supporting equipment (including service roads) is 2% to 5% of the land within a wind farm's boundary. Conclusion: availability of land, in gross terms, is not a constraint to onshore development of large amounts of wind power in the U.S.

Department of Interior Opposes Anti-Wind Provision of Rahall Bill

The U.S. Department of the Interior weighed in yesterday on the anti-wind-power section of legislation sponsored by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall II and currently pending before the committee.

Said the Department's letter in part,

Subtitle D. Ensuring Safety of Wildlife With Respect to Wind Energy.

We recommend subtitle D be deleted.

Sections 231 through 235 would require the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Fish and Wildlife Service, to promultate regulations that establish minimum standards for siting, construction, monitoring, and adaptive management that must be satisfied by all wind projects to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts on migratory birds, bats, and other wildlife. The regulations would need to be promulgated within 180 days after enactment of H.R. 2337. We agree it is important that wind power facilities seek to minimize and mitigate adverse impacts on migratory birds, bats and other wildlife. In fact, the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and other federal statutes must be complied with. However, the Department of the Interior opposes this subtitle as its enactment would be premature.

On March 13, 2007, the Secretary of the Interior announced the Formation of a Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) Committee, the Wind Turbine Guidelines Advisory Committee, to look at the very issues raised under Section 231. The FACA Committee consists of a broad group of representatives, including those from State and Federal agencies, environmental groups, and industry organizations. They will be carefully considering all of the issues related to wind energy facilities and making recommendations whether the guidelines can be voluntary, mandatory, or may require regulations. Therefore, we believe it is premature for Congress to legislate this process and instead we would like Congress to allow the FACA process to move forward.

If you would like to learn more about Subtitle D, which would basically stop the wind industry dead in its tracks for 6 months to as long as three years by making it a federal crime to generate clean wind energy without a permit from the federal government, go here. To take action to oppose this ill-advised legislation, go here.

Regards,
Tom

Utilities Talk More Wind


Airtricity Chairman Pat Wood, moderator of the "Utility Leadership in Wind Energy Development" session at the WINDPOWER 2007 Conference & Exhibition


Utilities are turning to wind—even as the “centerpiece of their portfolio” in some cases—because customers want it and policy calls for it, said utility and industry officials at the WINDPOWER 2007 Conference & Exhibition on Tuesday.

The opening session at WINDPOWER 2007, “Utility Leadership in Wind Energy Development,” brought together officials from both investor-owned and municipal utilities, in addition to the Bonneville Power Administration. Rounding out the panel was California Independent System Operator President and CEO Yakout Mansour.

“Across the country, the utility embrace of wind power is now a national phenomenon,” said Airtricity Chairman Pat Wood, a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the panel’s moderator. Wood set the stage for the discussion by pointing out that utilities, the entities that ultimately deliver the power to the end user, are a crucial piece of the wind equation. “If the utility industry . . . is not engaged in this effort, we can’t go anywhere,” he said.

Thankfully, many utilities are engaged—for one, Xcel Energy, the No. 1 provider of wind energy to customers in the U.S. The utility will have 2,800 MW in wind capacity for its customers by the end of 2007, said Paul Bonavia, president of Xcel Energy’s utilities group. That number will rise to 6,000 MW by 2020, he said. “We listen to our customers, and they’re telling us this is something that they want and value,” he said. “We would rather take our bet on technologies of the future than on technologies of the past.”

That commitment to the customers is what drives utilities, who are primarily concerned with such issues as reliability and the rates they must charge customers. Bonneville Power Administration Administrator Stephen Wright, who referenced a recent study in which the organization was involved concluding that 6,000 MW of wind is “technically feasible,” expressed concern over the large amount of load growth taking place in several regions of the country at a time when resource constraints are increasing. “We need the wind industry to work with us to make sure we don’t have a reliability crisis and we don’t have a rate crisis,” he said.

The need for new generation resources was echoed by Yakout Mansour, who as the president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator is involved in the state’s quest to achieve its recently enacted ambitious renewable portfolio standard goals. In a mere five years, he said, the state will need to add over 7,000 MW of renewable energy capacity. “I need your help, I need it badly, and I need it now,” he told the audience.

Utility officials were eager to use the forum as an opportunity to communicate such perspectives and needs. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which owns its own wind, is looking for ways to add more wind onto its system through diversifying geographically (its turbines are primarily in one area) and other means. A “wish list” from Sacramento Municipal Utility District General Manager Jan Schori included improved forecasting, a sentiment echoed by Wright. Day-ahead forecasting, Schori said, is “not that good right now.” She also said she would like to see longer warranty and service agreements on turbines and equipment, which she said are more common in Europe. “We need you to think more like a utility,” she said.

Schori also expressed a common theme at WINDPOWER 2007: “We all need to cooperate on the transmission problem.”

As participants acknowledged the needs and challenges ahead, one theme that emerged was how several utilities—namely, those represented on the panel—now consider wind a key piece of their generation mix. Bonavia called wind “the centerpiece of our portfolio.” Asked how more utilities might become more comfortable with adding wind onto their systems, Bonavia said, “We need to have success stories.”

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

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.

Wind Power and Jobs in Michigan

Long day today, meeting in Michigan to talk about wind power and economic development. Wind would seem to be a perfect fit for the Great Lake State--many people expect it to be one of the largest sources of new manufacturing jobs in the 21st century. We know that fossil fuels are eventually going to run out and that they also carry substantial environmental costs, so there is no time like the present to be thinking about what comes next. Pennsylvania, Iowa and, most recently, Colorado have all managed to attract new wind turbine manufacturing plants in the last couple of years and there are likely to be many more built in the U.S. during the next decade--this country has a huge wind resource, with more energy than all of Saudi Arabia's oil, and it is only a matter of time until we get serious about making it into a mainstream energy supply source.

Perhaps the most interesting talk of the day came from a representative of Clipper Windpower, an Iowa-based manufacturer, who said that one of his company's major problems is keeping its supply of components flowing: "We could build more turbines if we could get the parts."