Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

It’s rare that we take on the media directly, but this is one of those Times. This week the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), an institution funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, issued a comprehensive report assessing the feasibility of substantially increasing the use of wind energy in an area known as the Eastern Interconnection, a term used to describe a wide area of the northeastern United States.

It’s a crucial question because states in the Midwest and Northeast are calculating how to meet state renewable energy requirements, which have been legislated in order to expand deployment of renewable energy and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

The NREL study is a big deal because ...

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Wind for Schools, the program funded by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to support wind energy education programs at universities, primary and secondary schools, announced a series of $60,000 grants to universities in Alaska, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia to lead projects in those states.

The grants will help the schools develop educational programs to improve understanding of wind technology among students in the states. The grants will be awarded to Appalachian State University (North Carolina), James Madison University (Virginia), Northern Arizona University, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Alaska.

The Wind for Schools program is aimed in part at helping ...

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 A long-awaited, detailed study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on integrating large amounts of wind energy into the Eastern region of the United States was released today, and the conclusions are very encouraging.

“Twenty percent wind is an ambitious goal, but this study shows that there are multiple scenarios through which it can be achieved,” said David Corbus, NREL project manager for the study. “Whether we’re talking about using land-based wind in the Midwest, offshore wind in the East or any combination of wind power resources, any plausible scenario requires transmission infrastructure upgrades and we need to start planning for that immediately.” More details of the report can be found at ...

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Back in the summer of 2008 T. Boone Pickens became the nation's biggest booster of wind energy. He spent a fortune on advertising, carried his whiteboard wherever he went, and promised to build the biggest windfarm ever, in Texas. Then the credit market seized, and natural gas boomed, and the wind part of the Pickens Plan went flat.

But the Pickens Pullback has not kept Texas from continuing to grow its wind capacity. Texas continues to lead the U.S. in installed wind capacity, with 9000 MW.

Wind accounted for 6 percent of the electricity produced in Texas last year, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), up from 4.6 percent in 2008 and well above an estimated 2 percent ...

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This was a week in which the wind news seemed to move offshore. First, there was Interior Secretary Salazar meeting with interested parties in the long-running Cape Wind drama; Salazar promised to end the suspense--make a decision on the project--by April.

Then Fishermen's Energy announced a small but potentially symbolic offshore wind farm--it could be the first to be built--that would supply electricity to Atlantic City, a place where the tourists would probably like to see the turbines (as opposed to some residents of Cape Cod).

Today, Secretary Salazar announced another initiative, a meeting next month in Washington of governors from states along the Atlantic Coast that are considering wind projects. Salazar ...

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Getting the first wind turbines offshore the United States has been anything but easy. Now Atlantic City is upping the stakes, and betting it will be the first. At the winter meeting today of the Metropolitan Business and Citizens Association (MBCA) held at the Resorts convention facility, Fishermen's Energy Corp. announced plans to build a 20-MW wind farm nearly three miles offshore from the resort town.

The project would consist of six turbines, Fishermen's general counsel Paul Gallagher told the business audience.
The turbines would be visible from the Atlantic City boardwalk but, in contrast to the experience of the sponsors of the ...

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 The New York Times online is devoting space to a timely debate over the land use impacts of increased renewable energy use. Here is a sample, a quote from Randy Udall, a Colorado-based energy analyst

Quote :

The wind and solar potential west of the Mississippi is gargantuan. But today wind provides just 2 percent of U.S. electricity, and solar less than 1 percent. You can’t scale these carbon-free power sources up, and link them to urban areas with new power lines, without having impacts.

Those impacts can be minimized by thoughtful siting and technological advances. To reduce water consumption, for example, solar ...

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 In state after state, we’ve seen that having support from key leaders, such as governors, is critical to the development of a thriving wind energy industry, from manufacturing to distribution to wind farm installations that will create jobs and generate tax revenues. So it’s natural that Wyoming wind developers – who want to take advantage of the state’s first-class wind resources and help bring similar economic benefits to Wyoming – are a little disappointed by recent comments from Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D). Last week, at a Chamber of Commerce appearance, he said, referring to energy developers in Wyoming, “We’re going to have an even playing field…Nobody gets a free ride,” he said, “…because fair is fair.”

Sounds good. Yet, a few days later, in a

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 If you were watching the NFL playoffs this weekend, you might have seen this ad for Duracell batteries. The brilliant 30-second spot demonstrates the ability of wind turbines to help deliver a powerful, positive message, even when the subject is only tangentially related to wind. It is batteries that are being advertised, after all, and they could be powering anything--a digital camera, for instance. But here they are being used to power a voltmeter, a key piece of safety equipment used by wind technicians when they are performing maintenance on a turbine. But wait--there's more. The technicians using the meter--and who are photographed standing dramatically atop the towers--are students at a wind technician training ...

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It is common practice for the government to release bad news on a Friday, hoping that no one will notice. But today the Obama Administration announced good news: the award of $2.3 billion worth of tax credits for renewable energy manufacturers, including $350 million in awards that will be used to help finance at least 50 new wind energy manufacturing facilities.

The awards are another piece of the economic recovery package that was enacted soon after Obama took office, and that has played a significant role in keeping the wind industry moving forward despite the recession and credit crunch.

Today's announcement also is a reminder that, in addition to being an inexhaustible and non-polluting energy source, wind energy has the potential to create thousands of ...

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