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| 30 Jun 2009 05:11:45 pm |
 Refinery Uses Wind Turbines for Electricity |
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| There is a lesson in the following story, not just an irony. According to the Wall Street Journal, Valero Energy Co., the largest U.S. oil refiner in terms of production capacity, recently erected 33 wind turbines to power its Texas refinery. It did so for sound business reasons, not out of soft-hearted environmentalism. The refinery has a monthly electric bill of about $1.4 million, and it's not going down. By erecting a wind farm, which cost $115 million, the refiner locks in electricity costs of about 4.5 cents a kilowatt-hour,about 1.5 cents cheaper than its current utility company rate. That means the wind turbines will pay for themselves in savings in 10 years. |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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| 29 Jun 2009 08:20:03 pm |
| AWEA’s Ron Stimmel Honored at Small Wind Conference |
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Ron Stimmel, AWEA’s Small Wind Advocate, was honored recently for “his enthusiasm, dedication, advocacy, and contributions to the small wind industry.”
He received the Small Wind Advocate Award at the Fifth Annual Small Wind Power Conference, which was hosted in mid-June by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association.
AWEA will hold its own Small Wind and Community Wind Conference and Exhibition November 3-5 in Detroit. |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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| 29 Jun 2009 07:17:12 pm |
| Opponents of Climate Change Bill Spin in Overdrive |
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| During the closing hours of House debate on the climate change legislation, the media monitor group Media Matters for America pulled together the talking points used by right wing opponents to oppose the bill. While conservatives did not have the votes to stop the bill, they get an A for spin. You would never know from listening to them that the bill aimed to deal with global warming, or that climate change even existed. As Media Matters noted, opponents from Rush Limbaugh on up depicted the legislation as just another tax bill that would deprive Americans of their liberty as well as their cash. “Entirely absent from these critiques is [any reference to] a recent Congressional Budget Office analysis that found that the bill's net impact to households would eventually range between a benefit of $40 per year and a cost of $340 per year, with an average cost of $175 per year.” |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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| 27 Jun 2009 01:43:46 pm |
| House Passes Climate Bill wiith RES, Transmission |
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Although the wind industry was looking for a stronger Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), AWEA praised the House's 219-212 passage of a climate change and energy bill. The RES piece of the American Clean Energy and Security Act calls for 20% of the nation’s electricity to come from renewable energy by 2020, but it permits states to meet up to 8% of the standard through energy-efficiency improvements.
AWEA CEO Denise Bode said, “We look forward to continuing to work with the Senate and Congressional leadership to strengthen and pass a national RES. As the global wind power industry makes decisions on locating investment and manufacturing capacity, our nation needs a strong RES to remain competitive in the international race to secure renewable energy investment and jobs.”
The close vote on passage of the legislation indicates how delicate energy politics remain in Congress, despite Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. The wind industry believes it needs a stronger RES to create a market that will bring investment in new wind projects and U.S. manufacturing facilities to supply them. But industry leaders also realize that politics is the art of the possible, and that the legislative process has a long way to go. In other words, supporting the compromise bill now could bring benefits later.
In addition to the RES, the legislation includes some transmission planning authority that could help get new high voltage transmission lines approved. As for the cap and trade provisions that are the centerpiece of the climate bill, the industry has long argued that reducing carbon emissions is not only essential for the environment; it will also increase demand for renewables, including wind. |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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| 25 Jun 2009 09:46:46 pm |
| Harvard Smarties Conclude Wind Can Power the World |
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Amidst all of the wind debunking funded by the fossil fuel groups comes a report from Harvard University that concludes that a "super-connected network of 2.5 megawatt wind turbines could meet global electricity demands – even if they only operated at 20 percent capacity," according to the Boston Globe.
The researchers concluded that in the continental United States, the wind energy potential is 16 times greater than the energy now consumed by the United States. But it notes that new transmission is needed to deliver the wind energy from where it is generated to where the power is needed. |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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