Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

Wind turbine technology is improving rapidly, but challenges--especially the current very low cost of natural gas and uncertainty concerning the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC)--remain, according to presenters on a WINDPOWER 2012 session entitled "Post 2012: Wind Market Assessment of Supply, Demand & Cost."

In a talk focusing on technology improvement and innovation, Matt Kaplan of IHS Emerging Energy Research (IHS-EER) had some very positive news.  His firm, Kaplan said, predicts that the average capacity of the U.S. fleet will increase due to continuing changes in towers and turbines due to a "clear trend" toward turbines optimized for lower-wind-speed sites.  Kaplan cited the GE 1.6-100, a relatively new turbine with an increased rotor diameter, as an ...

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The fate of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) will impact a fiberglass supplier with a major factory in Shelby, N.C., local press reports said recently.

Cheryl Richards, wind energy global market manager for PPG Industries, told the Shelby Star newspaper that the company's fiberglass business, threatened in the past by foreign competition, had survived in part by expanding into wind power, where the material is a primary component of wind turbine rotor blades.  That in turn kept several hundred workers employed in the Shelby plant, which was opened in 1959 and has been churning out fiberglass ever since.

If the PTC is not extended, she added, PPG will ...

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The following letter to the editor appeared in the Jamestown (R.I.) Press and is reprinted here with permission of the author.

As a member for three years of the Wind Energy Committee--which was responsible for the feasibility study and site selection analysis for the wind turbine under consideration in Jamestown--I have followed with interest the debates on this issue.

First there were letters in the Press that opposed the turbine based on speculative predictions of economic viability. Then the wind turbine was attacked on aesthetic grounds, which is ironic since one of the iconic symbols of Jamestown is a windmill. And now we have moved on to the famous “wind turbine syndrome.”

In his May 17 letter (“There is evidence ...

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The Daily Review, a newspaper based in Towanda, Pa., this week became the latest in a steadily growing number of newspapers endorsing an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

Said the Daily Review in an editorial, "[F]ederal lawmakers should renew the production tax credit for wind power, which otherwise would expire at the end of this year. It has helped to drive down the cost of wind power and to preserve and expand jobs in the industry."  The editorial generally spoke approvingly of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, and noted their increasing contribution to regional electricity supplies.

The PTC ...

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Rock Island Clean Line, LLC, has received an OK from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin negotiating transmission service agreements with potential customers of the company’s 500-mile transmission project that would carry wind energy from northwest Iowa to the Chicago area.

The latest-technology, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line would deliver 3,500 MW of wind energy resources in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota to power-hungry load centers to the east, specifically in Illinois and other states. Customers using the Rock Island Clean Line, therefore, would likely be load-serving entities (distribution utilities) or wind developers. With transmission development being a marathon process by nature, Clean Line Energy is eyeing ...

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A recent analysis has generated some press interest for its conclusion that adding current levels of wind energy to the grid yields even greater reductions in emissions of harmful pollutants than expected, but that at levels of wind energy several times higher than are on the grid today, the incremental pollution savings of adding wind energy to the grid are somewhat smaller than they are at lower levels of wind. Unfortunately, this study’s findings have been misreported in the press, so we’d like to set the record straight:

- Much of the press coverage of this study is incorrectly reporting that the study finds that wind energy does not reduce pollution, or that the pollution savings are always ...

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Speeches, press availabilities to feature bipartisan group
including Govs. Brownback and Beebe, and Karl Rove and Robert Gibbs

As the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) finalizes preparations for the largest annual gathering of the global wind industry, WINDPOWER 2012, June 3-6 in Atlanta, Ga., AWEA is proud to announce that Heather Zichal, President Obama's chief advisor on energy and environmental policy issues, will address attendees on Monday, June 4.

Her attendance reflects mounting bipartisan support for extending the critical Production Tax Credit that has allowed U.S. wind power to install 35% of all new U.S. ...

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This article by Zoë Casey is cross-posted from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) blog.

A new study, published by the Bavarian Environment Agency in Germany, has found that wind turbines do not generate infrasound at a level that would damage human health, backing up previous studies with similar conclusions.

Wind energy structures generate infrasound which is far below normal human hearing and ...

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In a press conference call last Friday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) called on Congress to extend the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC). According to an Associated Press story, the two said that uncertainty created by the credit's impending expiration at year's end is keeping businesses from planning investments and creating jobs.

The story quoted Mr. Schweitzer as saying that some 50 potential wind projects in Montana could be affected by Congressional action on the PTC. As of the end of 2011, the state had 386 megawatts (MW) of wind ...

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The Manhattan Institute's Robert Bryce had another column in yesterday's Wall Street Journal attacking wind power. The following was posted as a comment.

The idea that wind power requires immense tracts of land to produce clean, low-cost electricity is simply ludicrous. Mr. Bryce is paid by fossil fuel interests to attack wind under the guise of “expert opinion” and it’s no surprise that he is pushing this misinformation about land use. Here are the facts:

Only 2-5 percent of the land area of a typical wind plant is actually taken up by wind turbines and other equipment, while the remaining 95-98 ...

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