Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

The following is taken from the Executive Summary of a paper prepared by AWEA Senior Policy Analyst Jessica Isaacs and the Policy Task Force of AWEA's Manufacturing Working Group.

Since the rebirth of the American wind industry in 1999, 20,000 manufacturing jobs have been created in the wind sector. This growth has occurred despite the lack of stable, long-term policy support and the sporadic nature of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

The instability of the PTC, which is typically renewed by Congress for short-term periods of one or two years, caused drops in demand in 2000, 2002 and 2004 of 75 percent or more, resulting in significant delay or deferral in U.S. wind manufacturing investment.

The majority (75%) of the ...

Read more

Five years after they were installed, the five wind turbines of the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm have become a continuing source of interest to Atlantic City visitors, according to a recent article at Philly.com, the website of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A few highlights of the article:

- Hotel operators in the resort city report that some guests ask for rooms with a view of the turbines, which generate electricity for a major wastewater treatment plant.

- The Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA), which ...

Read more

Conservative activist David Frum repeated some misconceptions about wind in a commentary that aired recently on American Public Media's "Marketplace" radio program, in which he criticized Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power. Contrary to Mr. Frum's comments:

- Wind energy is one of the most affordable forms of new electric generating capacity, competing with all other sources of new capacity and saving consumers money by holding down the cost of other fuels such as natural gas. Furthermore, since a wind turbine's fuel (the wind) is free throughout the 20-year life span of a wind project, wind energy is inflation proof and protects consumers from fuel price spikes.

- Germany's wind resource, both land-based and offshore, is domestic, helping to reduce ...

Read more

The New York Times has an opinion article today from Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute that criticizes solar and wind power and contains a number of factual errors and omissions.  Mr. Bryce is a frequent critic of wind, on a variety of grounds, and the Manhattan Institute receives funding from Koch Industries, one of the nation's largest fossil fuel companies, as well as ExxonMobil.

Contrary to Mr. Bryce's assertions:

Land use: While the boundaries of wind farms may be large, wind turbines actually use very little land. A 2008 study by the ...

Read more

The final word from our conference staff on exhibit space at the recent WINDPOWER 2011 Conference & Exhibition in Anaheim, Calif., is in:

- Exhibitors: 1,155
- Floor Space: 332,385 square feet (30,880 square meters)
- Equivalent to: 18 football fields

We would like to thank everyone who helped make this edition of WINDPOWER so successful. And don't forget--exhibit booth sales are now open for WINDPOWER 2012 in Atlanta, Ga., as well as Offshore WINDPOWER 2011 and Small & Community WINDPOWER 2011!

Read more

A new report released Thursday by the Canadian organization Environmental Defence corrects what the group called "the misinformation being promoted by anti-wind activists around Ontario." Environmental Defence said in a news release that the report, Blowing Smoke: Correcting Anti-Wind Myths in Ontario, "finds that study after study around the world has concluded that ...

Read more

A story in today's Los Angeles Times uses the long-known phenomenon of golden eagle collisions with wind turbines in California's Altamont Pass to attempt to raise doubts about the state's recently passed Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires utilities to obtain 33% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.  Readers of the p.1 article could be forgiven if they mistakenly concluded that modern wind turbines threaten eagle populations, which they don't—nationwide, modern turbines account for less than 1% of golden eagle deaths from human causes.

According to the story, the eagle deaths, which were first raised as an issue more than 20 years ago, "[raises] troubling questions about the state's push for alternative power sources," a proposition ...

Read more

Sierra Club Canada weighed in yesterday with some harsh words for opponents of wind power in Ontario, with the group's Executive Director, John Bennett, saying in part, "Rural Ontarians are being sold a bill of goods when it comes to wind energy. There is no place for disinformation in public dialogue and politicians planning to take advantage of it should be ashamed."

Sierra Club Canada accompanied the release with a study, The REAL Truth About Wind Energy, examining a variety of health and safety issues touted ...

Read more

A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have agreed to form a new umbrella group, Citizen Partnerships for Offshore Wind (CPOW), to promote offshore wind power.

According to its newly established website, CPOW is "a collaboration of communities and organizations that believe the United States must move towards indigenous clean energy sources like offshore wind and that public education and citizen engagement are essential to making that transition.

"This partnership aims to connect coastal communities facing offshore wind development to address common challenges and opportunities posed by offshore wind. By working collaboratively, citizens can ...

Read more

Wind power has transformed rural Sherman County, OR, according to a story in today's New York Times by Lee van der Voo:

- County residents receive a payment of $590 a year for each household from the county's tax revenues on its burgeoning wind farms, in a program similar to Alaska's annual rebates on oil pipeline revenues.

- The wind farms have brought in $17.5 million in taxes, fees and assessments over the past nine years to the county, which has only 1,735 residents.  Benefits have flowed to schools and public works, including a new library.

- The wind industry is the county's largest employer.

The ...

Read more