Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

The utility system operator for most of the state of Texas broke its wind power generation record twice last week. But what’s almost as notable is what was behind the record—besides the wind, that is.

Wind output reached 7,599 MW at 8:41 p.m. on Wednesday, exceeding the 7,403 MW record from the previous day by 196 MW and meeting a full 22 percent of the system’s electricity demand. At the time of Wednesday’s record, total system load was 34,318 MW. Prior to March 6, the record for wind output on the ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] system was 7,400 MW, recorded on Oct. 7, 2011. 7,599 MW is enough to fully supply about 6 million typical American homes at average usage levels.

As impressive as all those numbers are, however, just as noteworthy are ...

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Will PTC uncertainty kill this American success story?

Able Manufacturing is creating new jobs and economic opportunity in Joplin, Mo., and this success story can be replicated all across the U.S. with stable tax policy.

In the latest segment of WindTV, the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) vehicle to highlight how wind works for America, Able CEO Jim Schwarz tells of how his wind energy supply chain manufacturing company went from zero employees in 2008 to 25, as well as of plans for adding another 10 employees to meet demand in what is expected to be a big year for wind energy development.

Able Manufacturing, a Missouri ...

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This article is cross-posted by permission from GreenTech Media, where it first appeared.

Wind industry pioneer Dr. James Walker talks about U.S. electricity in the 21st century.

By Herman K. Trabish: March 8, 2012

Jim Walker remembers when nuclear-energy-generated electricity was going to be too cheap to meter and when a law prevented the use of U.S. natural gas supplies for electricity ...

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The community-wind segment of the wind power industry this week mourned the death of Paul Woodin, facilitator and advocate of community wind power and Vietnam veteran, who passed away on March 2 at the Oregon Veterans’ Home. He was 64.
 
Born in Illinois and raised in New York state, Woodin developed a base of knowledge applicable to wind energy by graduating from Florida Air Academy in 1965 and St. Louis University’s Parks College of Aeronautical Technology in 1972. It wasn’t until after stints at Lockheed in Burbank, Calif., and a Martin Marietta Aluminum plant in Goldendale, Wash., however, that Woodin found his wind power calling. When the aluminum plant closed, Woodin started his own business assisting community wind projects and most recently worked with the Community ...

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Sorry, just couldn't resist that title.

Anyway, FoxNews.com carried an op-ed yesterday from two representatives of Americans for Prosperity, a fossil-fuels-funded group. Not surprisingly, it included misleading data on wind power's key incentive, the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

The source of the error is quite clear: analyzing only a single year of energy incentives is a poor way to judge the support afforded by the U.S. government to many kinds of energy sources for decades.

Consider a coal-fired power plant installed in 1965 and still generating electricity today. That power plant was subsidized when it was installed, and the mining and transportation of its fuel have been subsidized in the 45-plus years ever since. If you ...

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National Public Radio carried a segment yesterday on the need for wind turbine technicians in Oklahoma, a state that has been hard hit by unemployment, and elsewhere around the nation.  The rapid expansion of America's wind power industry, it said, means there is a growing need for technicians to service and maintain the giant machines.

Being a turbine jockey isn't for everyone--it requires the ability to work high in the air as well as in enclosed spaces. But it's a job that provides a solid paycheck and valuable experience in an industry that is likely to keep growing in the future (for what it has meant to one Iowa family, and one wind technician who says, "This is a pretty ...

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Kevin Haley assisted in the writing of this article.

It's a two-fer: both the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and Heritage Foundation blogs carried attacks on wind Tuesday, using cherry-picked statistics to mislead their audiences.

Heritage Foundation and energy incentives

Heritage may not support American renewable energy, but you’d expect them to at least get their facts straight.

Regarding federal investment in energy production, the fact is, oil and gas companies have received more than 75 times the total cumulative dollar amount of federal subsidies that renewables ($446.96 billion vs. $5.93 billion ...

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Robert Bryce, of the fossil-fuel-funded Manhattan Institute, had another attack on wind in the Wall Street Journal yesterday.  The following was posted as a comment.

Despite the attacks penned by Mr. Bryce, the fact remains that the wind industry maintains a positive, proactive approach to protecting wildlife. In fact, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) gladly acknowledges that wind energy is not even close to being a leading cause of mortality with respect to birds. While some birds do occasionally collide with wind turbines, this impact needs to assessed in comparison to all the other existing human-caused sources of mortality, and when assessed from this or any other standpoint, modern wind power plants are cumulatively far less harmful ...

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