The AWEA Blog: Into the Wind

Wind power: Keeping America's lunch money at home

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 Tom Gray

"Will China eat our (renewable) lunch?," the title of a recent Forbes.com blog article by Julian Chang bluntly asks.

I'm pleased to report that for wind power, the answer is no -- If we do the smart thing and allow this industry to continue to grow.

Unfortunately, we could still make the mistake of giving our lunch away, and one of the simplest ways to do so would be for Congress to increase taxes on the rapidly expanding U.S. wind power industry by letting its key tax incentive, the Production Tax Credit (PTC), expire at the end of 2012.

Congressmen Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) have introduced H.R. 3307, the ...

Fact Check: NYT mischaracterizes wind in renewable subsidies story

Posted: 12 Nov 2011 Jon Goldstein, AWEA Director of Public Affairs

The New York Times led today's edition with a story that got it wrong on wind power. Here's why:

Wind power is different. The loan guarantee program mentioned in the story didn't even apply to over 99% of wind projects. And wind-generated electricity is an especially good deal right now for consumers.

For example, Alabama Power, a subsidiary of the Southern Company (a major electric utility), just saved its customers money by signing a purchase agreement for wind power: "The delivered price of energy ...

Veterans Day edition of WindTV: Jobs for vets and energy security

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 Tom Gray

WindTV's focus this week is a special Veterans Day edition including contributions from former U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, now working in the wind energy industry, and Army Major Mindy Kimball, a Gulf veteran who tells how she powers her electric SmartCar with wind energy.

Clark discusses how meaningful it is for returning Gulf veterans to find jobs making homegrown domestic energy here in the U.S. Kimball adds her thoughts on energy security, which led her to purchase an electric car and then to sign up for wind power through her local utility so that she could power it without fossil fuels.

“I am a strong believer in renewable energy,” states Clark in the video as he notes his support for wind as a ...

International Energy Agency: Fossil fuels subsidized at six times the level of renewables

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 Tom Gray

In its World Energy Outlook 2011 publication issued Wednesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) again focused attention on fossil fuel subsidies around the world, noting that in 2010, government subsidies to consumers of gasoline, coal and natural gas amounted to more than six times the amount spent on renewable energy.

The Paris-based agency, which collects energy data and advises the oil-importing nations on energy policy, pegged fossil fuel subsidies at $409 billion in 2010, up 36 percent from a year earlier. Renewable energy subsidies, it said, totaled $66 billion, up 10 percent.

Commented the IEA, ""There are few signs that the ...

Wind power increasingly competitive and productive, new reports find

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 Tom Gray

Wind power's costs are coming down and its usage is growing, according to two reports issued yesterday. The first, by London-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), said that land-based wind farms will be "fully competitive" with conventional electricity sources in five years; the second, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), documented wind's increasing role in U.S. electricity generation, from some 6 billion kWh in 2000 to 95 billion kWh in 2010.

BNEF said it sees the cost of electricity from land-based wind ...

Clean energy: A bipartisan goal

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 Tom Gray

"Finding innovative ways of getting new cleaner energy ought to be something most Americans feel pretty comfortable with."--Newt Gingrich, Republican candidate for President, Nov. 8, 2011, Center Seat, Fox News Special Report.

We couldn't agree more, and it's pretty clear that many Americans do, too, from the overwhelming majorities wind power regularly racks up in public opinion polls to the bipartisan group of Members of Congress led by Reps. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) who joined last week to introduce legislation to extend the federal wind ...

Bird fatalities at Laurel Mountain substation

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 Tom Gray

On Oct. 29, the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette carried a story concerning a large number of bird fatalities at a West Virginia wind farm. The following is a letter to the editor from AWEA Director of Siting Policy John Anderson.

To the Editor:

Regarding your recent story on bird collisions at the Laurel Mountain wind farm, the most important thing to understand in order to prevent such events in the future is that the birds were not killed by the wind turbines. Rather, they flew into an electrical substation attached to the facility, where a light had been left burning. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson noted that "This incident doesn't have anything to do with the turbines themselves," ...

Awards honor leadership in community wind

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 Carl Levesque, AWEA Editor & Publications Manager

In Albany at the recent “Community Wind Across America” northeast regional conference—an event designed to showcase ordinary people who are doing extraordinary work for residential and commercial wind energy development on a local level—the nonprofit organization Windustry recognized three outstanding leaders in community wind with the inaugural presentations of the Distinguished Service in Community Wind Award and the Community Wind Innovator Award.

The 2011 recipient of the Distinguished Service in Community Wind Award is Thomas A. Wind, PE, of Wind Utility Consulting, based in Jamaica, Iowa. The annual award was established by the Windustry board of directors to acknowledge a person who has made ...

Wind incentive is an investment in jobs

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 Jason Sorter

The following responds to an opinion article in today's edition of the Daily Caller from Michael Needham, CEO of Heritage Action for America, on energy subsidies.

Mr. Needham seems to not realize that the wind power industry's federal incentive is an investment in American manufacturing jobs and one of the fastest-growing U.S. manufacturing sectors. Over the last six years, U.S. domestic production of wind turbine components has grown 12-fold to more than 400 facilities in 43 states, shifting manufacturing jobs from overseas back to the U.S.

Wind power is not only a manufacturing industry that America can compete in, it’s a market that we are winning, with the help of the production tax credit (PTC). The PTC is set to expire at the end of 2012, and it is ...

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak 'loves' wind turbines

Posted: 07 Nov 2011 Tom Gray

Apple Computer, Inc., co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak expressed strong interest and support for wind turbines and the wind power industry in a special keynote speech at the AWEA Fall Symposium last week, saying of wind turbines, “I wish my home were up on a little hill overlooking a whole array of them. I would love that.”

Wozniak told attendees at the Carlsbad, Calif., event about his experiences as a young computer enthusiast, his work with the late Steve Jobs and his views on technological innovation in the wind industry.

He drew parallels between his experience increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of personal computers with the ...

Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

Blog Archive