The
American wind energy industry today wraps up its most successful meeting
ever, hosting more than 2,000 attendees at the Oregon Convention Center in
Portland, Ore., in the WINDPOWER 2002 Conference and Exhibition, the
largest wind energy meeting in American history.
Highlights included:
Record-breaking
attendance. Over 2,000 registrants participated in the conference and
exhibition, and an additional 350 visitors came to see the exhibition hall
on Tuesday afternoon when doors were open for the public.
Debut of new players in
the industry, including GE Energy and Shell WindEnergy. GE Wind
Energy is the new subsidiary of GE Power Systems, which recently acquired
the manufacturing capability of Enron Wind Corp., the largest U.S.
utility-scale wind turbine manufacturer. Shell WindEnergy, Inc., a
subsidiary of Shell, has purchased an 80-MW wind plant near Amarillo,
Tex., and a 41-MW facility in southern California, owns a 50-MW wind
project in Wyoming, and is developing or operating more than 1,000 MW of
wind in the U.S. and Europe.
Statement by Vestas,
the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, that wind energy is likely
to provide 5% of electricity worldwide by 2020, based on the 30%+ average
yearly growth rate that the wind industry has experienced over the past
five years. Vestas sees the U.S. playing a major role in this growing
market, and the company is planning to open a 700,000-square-foot
manufacturing facility in Portland, which, at full capacity, will employ
1,000 people.
Unveiling of the
WINDPOWER 2002 Wind Energy awards, including the Federal and
Congressional Leadership award, which went to Federal Regulatory Energy
Commission (FERC) Chairman Pat Wood, and Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)
and Harry Reid (D-Nev.) <http://www.awea.org/news/news020530awd.html>
Announcement by the Long
Island Power Authority (LIPA) that it would issue a competitive
solicitation for power purchase agreements for 100 MW to140 MW of wind
energy to be located off the Atlantic Coast of Long Island. LIPA described
the process it expects to follow for the solicitation, starting with a
public meeting on June 25.
"We've
been delighted with the enthusiasm that everyone connected with this
industry has shown this week," commented Randall Swisher, executive
director of the host American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). "There is a
lot of excitement about wind energy's extraordinary potential and the
industry's rapid growth. We believe wind can supply 6% of U.S. electricity
by the year 2020, and WINDPOWER 2002 has been a major milestone on the
path to that goal."
The
WINDPOWER 2003 Conference and Exhibition will take place in Austin, Texas
May 18-21, 2003. Some 23,200 square feet, or 95%, of the exhibition floor
space for the event has already been sold, an area surpassing the total
space used in Portland for WINDPOWER 2002.
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AWEA, formed in 1974, is the national trade association of the U.S. wind energy
industry. The association's membership of more than 700 includes turbine
manufacturers, wind project developers, utilities, academicians, and interested
individuals from 49 states. More information on wind energy is available
from the home page
of the AWEA web site: www.awea.org
