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Friday, May 8, 2009 | ...Final WINDPOWER 2009 Issue...Thank You for Attending!...
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Stimulus Impact Will Start in 2010: Wind Turbine Producers
With funds from the economic stimulus package not reaching the industry until sometime in 2010, U.S. wind energy is likely to have a respectable 2009 before expanding again in the following years, said panelists on the wind turbine manufacturers’ forum at WINDPOWER 2009.
The rulemaking required for the loan guaranty and “Treasury grant” programs, the latter of which allows the production tax credit to be monetized, will prevent the industry from receiving a jolt from the economic stimulus package this year, panelists said. For that reason, the consensus was that the industry would deploy 5,000-6,000 MW this year. Some said the industry would return to 8,000-MW levels in 2010, with the stimulus package impacting the industry only beginning several months into the year. But within five years, the industry would be deploying 10,000 MW annually, most panelists agreed.
“We are confident the market is going to become strong by the end of the year,” said Jose Ignacio Llorente, chief business officer at Gamesa.
Yet the industry has grown accustomed to breaking records year after year, making 2009 potentially seem unimpressive to some. However, “If we have a 5,000-6,000 MW market in 2009, I don’t think that’s anything to be ashamed of,” pointed out Andy Cukurs, CEO of Suzlon’s North American operations.
Panelists also said that there has been an upside to the industry slowdown. It has allowed turbine makers, many of whom are continuing to invest in their operations and expand capacity, to qualify new suppliers. Michael Revak, vice president of sales and proposal, at Siemens, noted that his company just announced a new manufacturing plant in Kansas.
“I see this as a very healthy point in the process,” said Cukurs.
Panelists at a second turbine producer session agreed that the trend is toward manufacturers sourcing their components domestically. “I.D.-ing suppliers is step 1, and qualifying them is step 2,” said Andy Lockhart of DeWind, Inc. Lockhart said his company in fact has already identified potential suppliers and should be “making decisions about completely sourcing in the U.S.” in the next 6-9 months.
Meanwhile, policy instability, at least for the long-term, continues to be a serious concern for the industry. While panelists agreed that the PTC has served the industry well, it is viewed only as a short- to mid-term policy. “For the longer-term, the RES [renewable electricity standard] is necessary,” said Adrian LaTrace, vice president and general manager at Acciona, echoing the remarks of others.
One panelist took that remark one step further: “To make [the industry] sustainable, I still think we need to have some kind of cap-and-trade structure,” said Scott Gros, senior vice president of sales at Vestas Americas.
As they have done in previous years, turbine producers attributed price fluctuations for their product to the cost of raw materials such as steel. With lower commodities prices resulting from the sluggish economy, “We’ll see some stabilizing of the prices,” said Cukurs, who also suggested that the expansion of the supply chain would contribute to that trend as well.
One interesting note about the stimulus package is that it could potentially affect how and where projects are developed. The Treasury grant program, also known as the investment tax credit, is based on project cost, not wind farm output. “The investment tax credit potentially opens up project development to areas with slightly lesser wind resources, said Cukurs. “I consider that to be a very good thing,” he said.
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Record Growth in Small Wind Turbine Market; U.S. Certification Standards Emerging
The U.S. market for small wind turbines experienced record growth in 2008, and standards for wind turbines are emerging, a WINDPOWER audience heard today.
The U.S. market for small wind nearly doubled in 2008, growing by 78% and adding about 17 MW of installed capacity,” Ron Stimmel, AWEA’s small-wind advocate, said in discussion about the AWEA Small Wind Turbine Global Market Study. The most significant growth was in the upper commercial segment (21-100 kW) and residential-scale turbine segment (1-10 kW).
“The industry predicts 30-fold growth over the next five years,” said Stimmel.
The growth is attributed in large part to the new eight-year 30% federal investment tax credit passed by Congress in October 2008 and augmented in February 2009.
Another big step forward for the small wind industry will be the establishment of a U.S. certification program. “Currently, each manufacturer uses [its] own specifications to report performance,” explained Larry Sherwood of the Small Wind Certification Council, whose organization surveyed the industry and found that only 25% of the turbines sold in the U.S. have passed a certified testing process and 50% have not been tested at all.
Representatives from the industry are currently developing a Small Wind Turbine Performance and Safety Standard for U.S. products, based on the existing International Electrotechnical Commission standard. Sherwood reported that the proposed standard has already gone through a public comment period, and the AWEA Standards Coordinating Committee is currently responding to the comments. The Web site www.SmallWindCertification.org will provide updates on developments in the certification process.
“Having a certification program will be a real game changer in the small wind industry,” said Stimmel.
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Opportunities Growing With Wind Industry: Panels
With the wind industry growing at a rapid pace, government, organizations, and companies all need to work together to identify the workforce challenges and forge ahead with the expansion of education and training opportunities, participants on two WINDPOWER 2009 panels said.
“Almost 10,000 MW of wind power were installed last year—and it takes people to do that work,” said E. Ian Baring-Gould, senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. As of year-end 2008, the U.S. wind industry employed 85,000 people, a growth of 70% over the previous year, according to AWEA figures.
Broadwind Energy, one of the largest wind energy employers according to Senior Vice President of Human Resources Bob Paxton, is having several troubles finding good candidates for the company’s job openings. Among the issues confronting Paxton on a day-to-day basis include candidates lacking wind industry experience, relevant qualifications such as project management, specialty engineering skills, and wind turbine technician training. In addition, many candidates do not wish to work in rural locations, as is often needed, he said.
To identify the current status of wind industry job training programs, AWEA has commissioned an educational survey, the preliminary results of which were presented by Liz Salerno, AWEA’s manager of policy analysis. The final results and accompanying report are expected to be officially released in the early fall. “AWEA plans to develop a comprehensive plan to fill workforce needs,” said Salerno.
Combined with input from wind industry companies, AWEA will use the Department of Energy’s 20% Wind Energy by 2030 report to determine what the type and scale of employment demands in the industry will be over the course of the next two decades. “If we are going to ramp the industry up to install 16 gigawatts of wind annually, we need to anticipate the future workforce needs,” said Salerno. As many as 100 educational programs exist or are under development in the U.S. today, “but we need to make sure they are focusing on the skill sets that will be needed in the future,” she said.
At a seminar connected with the WINDPOWER Job Fair, meanwhile, panelists told a group of prospective young industry entrants that wind energy needs them. Edward Zaelke of Chadbourne & Parke, LLP, predicted the U.S. wind industry will continue to grow and produce jobs because U.S. population growth alone will fuel continued increases in U.S. electricity demand.
In addition, Zaelke said, 20% of aging coal-fired power plants will need replacement soon, and concerns about global warming could mean they are replaced with renewable sources of energy, such as wind. “Wind is still the most economical of renewables. The cost of financing is going down, and state renewable [electricity] standards have spurred growth,” he said.
While the industry is experiencing job expansion, seekers of employment are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities presented by wind energy. Bruce Bailey of AWS TrueWind said that only “a few years ago, when we would issue a job announcement, we would get a trickle of resumes. That’s changed.” Bailey said that’s partly because the wind industry has a built-in advantage when it comes to recruitment: “It’s not just a job. People in it want to make a difference. They have passion.”
Nevertheless, the event had a spirit of recruitment about it. “The wind industry is a great place to be; Vestas is, too,” said Kevin Cory, director of people and culture at the turbine producer, which is opening several new manufacturing facilities in Colorado.
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If Transmission is for Renewables, Yes-in-My-Backyard: Poll
While a majority of Americans oppose new high-voltage transmission lines in their communities, opposition drops precipitously to 17% if those lines are delivering clean, renewable energy from wind, according to a just-released survey from the Saint Consulting Group.
Support for new transmission lines leaps from just 46% to 83% when respondents are asked specifically about high-voltage transmission lines delivering wind power.
Ben Kelahan, energy practice leader at Saint Consulting, said the new results are a clear sign that Americans support cleaner, renewable power to the level that their support has carried over to the distribution of that power through their own backyard.
“High-voltage transmission lines generate some of the most adamant NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) opposition in the country,” said Ben Kelahan, energy practice leader at Saint Consulting. “That such a large percentage of people are willing to allow green lines in their community says a lot about the awareness and importance of renewable energy and climate change issues in addition to the education efforts undertaken by the renewable energy industry.”
The wind power industry is advocating for Congress to enact legislation that would allow the federal government to serve as a backstop in the area of transmission siting and approvals. The industry supports a model similar to the federal government’s role in the siting of interstate natural gas pipelines; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would be the lead agency to provide approval and permitting under such a model. According to the Saint Consulting Group’s study, Americans generally oppose federal siting authority of transmission by a margin of 57% to 43%.
The transmission poll come on the heels of recent results from the firm’s 2009 “Saint Index,” which showed that Americans generally support not only wind farms in general but projects located in their communities. According to the study, 82% of Americans say they would support a wind farm going into their own community—an increase from 76% a year earlier.
Transmission, siting, and NIMBYism, in fact, have been touched on at WINDPOWER 2009. Billionaire Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens told reporters at a media event that he favors federal siting authority similar to the interstate pipeline model—in spite of his general dislike for federal-authority policies. And at the WINDPOWER plenary session in which he participated, he remarked that if an entity wanted to build wind power-carrying transmission lines across his ranch land, he would welcome it because it is good for the country. He also told of how he discussed the issue with Ted Turner, who expressed the same sentiment: it’s good for the country, so he’d welcome it.
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Samsung Heavy Industries Starts with Three-Turbine Deal with Cielo
Samsung Heavy Industries’ wind turbine sales efforts appear to be getting off the ground in the U.S. with the announcement that developer Cielo Wind Services, Inc., plans to deploy serial numbers 1, 2, and 3 of Samsung’s new 2.5-MW turbine.
Turbine delivery and construction on the project, to be located near Lubbock, Texas, is slated to begin in 2010, with full operations of the three turbines anticipated to start in 2011—also the year that Samsung plans to begin providing commercial wind turbines to the U.S. market.
“Lubbock, Texas, is an ideal location to prototype a new wind turbine generator in North America,” said Cielo President Walt Hornaday.
The companies noted that Texas Tech University in Lubbock will provide the project with close access to wind research-and-development staff. Given the quality wind resource in the area, Samsung said the project will offer good testing conditions for the prototypes and provide the new turbine manufacturer with good operating-history data for the wind-rich Great Plains area of the U.S.
With its background in such structural and extreme-weather industries as ship building and offshore platform construction, Samsung believes it has capabilities that lend itself to the offshore wind market, said Sung Yong Han, executive vice president of Samsung Heavy Indurstries’ wind turbine division.
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Catch WINDPOWER and AWEA on Twitter, Facebook, Flicker, and YouTube
AWEA has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube, and will be sharing stories and pictures from WINDPOWER 2009 on these outlets. Please join our Twitter conversation by including #WP09 at the end of your post. Also, you can continue to stay up to date on wind industry developments through AWEA’s Into the Wind blog.
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Volume 4, Issue 4
| Wind Energy Daily is a special edition of Wind Energy Weekly, and published by the American Wind Energy Association. |
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| WINDPOWER 2009 Conference Materials: Pre-order at the
AWEA Store |
Presentations from the WINDPOWER 2009 Conference are recorded live and synched with audio. You can now watch any session as it happened ...and pause, rewind and fast forward.
• Review what you learned
• See what you missed
• Pre-order now and save!
Pre-order now, and in approximately 2 weeks, you will receive instructions to download the conference materials.
Look for a pre-order form in your conference folder, or come by the AWEA Store. (Level 1, South Wing, McCormick Place)
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WINDPOWER 2009 Job Fair
Jobs available now: |
Director, Project Resource
Portland, OR
Market Intelligence Specialist
Portland, OR
Transmission & Market Analyst
Chicago, IL
Development Manager
Mountain/West region, USA
Site Manager
Etheridge, MT
Land & Title Specialist
Minneapolis, MN
Land Acquisition Specialist
Denver, CO
Minneapolis, MN
Sr. Financial Analyst
Escondido, CA
Accounting Manager
North Palm Springs, CA
Cost Accountant
North Palm Springs, CA
Accounting Manager
San Francisco, CA
Project Developer
USA
Pre Construction Manager
Chattanooga, TN
Project Due Diligence Manager
Seattle, WA
Manager, Project Finance
Escondido, CA
Site Assessment Engineer
Oregon
Project Assistant
Chattanooga, TN
Project Manager
Chattanooga, TN
Engineering Professionals
Holland, MI
Wind Technician - Hourly
Woodstock, MN
Trimont, MN
Stetson, ME
Mars Hill, ME
Peetz, CO
Crystal lake, IA
Zearing, IA
Sweetwater, TX
Varysburg, NY
Iraan, TX
Electrical Project Engineer
Escondido, CA
Manager, Tax
Escondido, CA
Field Sales and Inside Sales Engineers
Holland, MI
Composite Engineer
Holland, MI
Entry Level Project Coordinator (Logistics)
Seattle, WA
Manager of Tower Services/ Wind Measurements
Seattle, WA
Asset Engineer
Open - USA
Structuring & Transactions Analyst
Escondido, CA
Manager, Corporate & Development Applications
Escondido, CA
Manager, IT Operations & Infrastructure
Escondido, CA
Sr. Data Acquisition Engineer
Open - USA
Wind Data Analyst
Chicago, IL
Director of Real Estate
St. Louis, MO
Senior Construction Manager
Madison, WI
Consulting Engineer
Seattle, WA
Wind Power Project Engineer
Seattle, WA
Energy Analyst
Seattle, WA
FREE and open to the public
Rooms N226-N228
McCormick Place - North Wing
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| Wind Energy Daily Contact: |
Carl Levesque
Editor, Wind Energy Weekly
clevesque@awea.org
About AWEA |
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