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| 02 Mar 2009 10:38:58 pm |
 Guest Blogger Rob Gramlich, AWEA's Policy Director |
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It’s snowing—and windy—in Washington today, and I am at an all-day hearing on “renewable integration” at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This is dry stuff—only it’s not. “Integrating” wind and other renewables into the grid is the key to building a new energy future in the United States, and making it happen is one of our primary challenges at AWEA.
So it is especially encouraging to see the statement today by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a not-for-profit company that oversees the transmission systems of the U.S. and Canada. “The need to reliably integrate renewable resources is no longer a question, it is a priority,” NERC CEO Rick Sergel said. According to data in NERC’s 2008 Long Term Reliability Assessment, 145,000 MW of wind generation is proposed to be added to the grid over the next 10 years. “That’s the equivalent of nearly 200 mid-sized coal plants or 130 average nuclear plants,” Sergel said.
He continued, “We absolutely need transmission – we estimate tens of thousands of miles of new transmission is needed to unlock location-constrained, remote energy resources and maintain reliability. Building it will require us to address the barriers that contributed to limited transmission development over the past 20 years.”
That’s exactly what we said in our transmission White Paper last month, and having NERC say it is going to make our job at AWEA a little easier. |
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Category : AWEA News
| By : Chris Madison |
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| 28 Feb 2009 05:15:11 pm |
| AWEA's Denise Bode Talks Renewables on CNN |
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| AWEA CEO Denise Bode will appear on CNN today, Saturday, at 4PM ET. She will be part of a panel discussing various aspects of President Obama's agenda. The CNN interview tops off a busy media week for AWEA, starting Monday with a high-level energy and transmission summit convened by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and T. Boone Pickens. Denise was one of the participants and speakers, along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Bill Clinton, Vice President Gore, and others. The full Webcam presentation is now available. |
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Category : AWEA News
| By : Chris Madison |
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| 27 Feb 2009 11:28:20 pm |
| (Say) It ain't So, Joe |
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| At a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing yesterday on a proposed national renewable electricity standard (RES), Rep. Joe Barton, R-TX, turned the tables on the pro-renewable crowd by arguing that wind energy contributes to global warming, rather than reducing it. Barton cited a Carnegie Mellon University study that concluded that massing wind turbines together in a large area would create global warming because it would heat up the atmosphere. |
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Category : AWEA News
| By : Chris Madison |
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| 27 Feb 2009 02:07:58 pm |
| It's Official: Wind Tech Gets Respect from Labor Dept. |
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| Wind Technicians will now be a unique category for collecting data on occupations in the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will now track specific national and state wage and employment information on wind technicians. Previously, wind technicians were lumped into a broader category of "Installation, Maintenance and Repair Workers, All Other” category. |
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Category : AWEA News
| By : Chris Madison |
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| 26 Feb 2009 01:33:22 am |
| More Notes from AWEA’s Siting Workshop—Day Two |
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SEATTLE--Wind is on the radar screen these days. Not necessarily in a good sense. The opening segment today at AWEA’s Project Siting Workshop here centered on the fact that on radar screens, wind farms masquerade as thunderstorms. This is disconcerting not only to weather forecasters, but also to those who depend on radar to keep track of commercial aircraft (the Federal Aviation Agency, FAA), and keep an eye out for the bad guys (the Department of Defense, DOD).
Luckily, for most problems, there are solutions, and after representatives of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors weather), the FAA and DOD explained the technical aspects of the issue, the session moderator, Stu Webster, Manager of permitting for Clipper Windpower, explained efforts underway in the industry through AWEA to come together with the government agencies to “mitigate” the impact. Webster also noted that the U.S. effort is modeled after successful cooperation among all parties involved in Great Britain.
Thousands of people live near wind farms without complaints. But some residents have complained, and since sound is often regulated at a local level, community acceptance is essential before a wind farm is developed. Panelist Mark Bastasch, of CH2M Hill, noted that the industry has to “provide clarity once and for all” on the sound question. That means, among other things, assembling an advisory panel to determine whether more research is needed. He also stated that developers should make sure that the community understands beforehand that “turbines can be heard.”
One of the final speakers, Robert Kahn, of Robert D. Kahn & Co., noted that he doesn’t “do” Power Point presentations, then proceeded to deliver perfect verbal bullet points on getting wind projects approved:
--You have to get the science right. He who has the best data wins.
--You have to send in lawyers and (hired) guns and money.
--You must reach accommodation with the (government) agencies. And you need to be prepared to mitigate where appropriate.
--If you get those steps right, your chances for success are vastly improved. |
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Category : AWEA News
| By : Chris Madison |
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