Monthly Archives: August 2012

USA Hits 50 Gigawatts of Generating Capacity

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Via Treehugger:

American Wind Power Hits Historic Milestone: 50 Gigawatts of Generating Capacity

Derek Markham
Energy / Renewable Energy
August 10, 2012


OliBac/CC BY 3.0
The state of wind power in the U.S. is rapidly rising, with the total electrical generating capacity in the country reaching a historic milestone of 50 gigawatts – the equivalent of the output of 11 nuclear power plants.

In a political climate where our federal policies affecting wind power generation are on the rocks (the Production Tax Credit (PTC) - a federal tax break of 2.1 cents per kilowatt hour – is set to expire, and the battle over renewing or dropping it is growing heated), reaching this power production level in 2012 demonstrates some of the meteoric rise of American wind power. Some wind generation at utility-scale began in the early ’80s, and it took about 23 years to hit 5 GW of generating capacity. In 2006, capacity doubled to 10 GW, then hit 25 GW in 2008, and has since doubled that figure in the last four years.

The 50 GW of wind power capacity online, across 39 states in the U.S., is said to be the energy equivalent of powering 13 million homes, and equals the power of 44 coal plants:


© AWEA

“These truly are the best of times and could be the worst of times for American wind power. This month we shattered the 50-gigawatt mark, and we’re on pace for one of our best years ever in terms of megawatts installed.” – Denise Bode, CEO of American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)

According to the AWEA, though, times could still be rocky ahead for the wind industry, due to the uncertainty about whether or not the extension of the PTCwill go through, and as a result, incoming orders to the wind industry’s manufacturing supply chain have slowed down considerably.

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Even Key Republicans Rallying Behind Wind Power Industry

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Via Treehugger:


Flickr/CC BY 3.0

It’s telling that one of the fastest-growing fractures in a political party known for its ideological unity is being caused by wind power. Mitt Romney recently saidthat he’d let the industry’s production tax credit expire at the end of the year—a policy position that, on its face, squares well with the small government-questing GOP of the day—but a handful of conservatives balked.

The reason is straightforward: a number of red and purple states are home to economies that have benefitted tremendously from the tax credits, which have stimulated job growth in recessionary times. Iowa, Texas, and Kansas come to mind. In fact, Iowa Republicans are among those raising the sharpest opposition to Romney’s position.

Iowa’s Ames Tribune notes that

U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, an Iowa Republican, responded by saying, “It’s the wrong decision. Wind energy represents one of the most innovative and exciting sectors of Iowa’s economy.” 

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who wrote the original wind energy tax credit legislation, reportedly threatened his fellow Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee that he’d join with the Democrats in voting to keep the credits. Some Republicans on the committee had tried to remove the wind energy tax credit from a package of tax breaks under consideration.

“It’s not right to single out one energy incentive over the others before a broader tax reform debate,” Grassley said in a statement Wednesday.

Grassley’s right. It’s absurd to single wind (and solar) out as deserving of the ax, especially when some of the most mature industries in the world (oil, coal) continue to receive robust federal handouts. And now that it’s easy to draw a line between the tax credits and thousands of well-paying jobs, it’s even harder for politicians to make the case for gutting support for a young but fast-growing industry.

 

All this means that we may well be on the threshold of watching wind power pass the tipping point into fully, totally nonpartisan territory—especially if Congress preserves the PTC, I wouldn’t be surprised if Americans come to regard the wind industry as neutrally as they do, I dunno, the microchip industry.

Mitt Romney’s Dangerous Stance Toward Wind

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Some very sobering and counterintuitive sentiment from presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.
Via Treehugger:


Gage Skidmore via Flickr/CC BY 2.0

You’d be hard-pressed to name a single American energy source that doesn’t benefit from government support. Coal companies get subsidies. Nuclear power plants are backed by massive loan guarantees. Oil companies, even the most profitable ones in the world, get truly impressive federal handouts. And, of course, wind and solar companies get tax credits.

But presidential candidate Mitt Romney opposes just one of the incentives listed above; want to venture a guess as to which one it is? It’s tax breaks for wind power, obviously! The only subsidy that’s doing what a subsidy is supposed to do—encourage investment in something we want more of. Few Americas would say, ‘yes, I’d like more of my tax dollars to support the coal industry.’

This matters, because at the moment the production tax credit (PTC) for wind power is under existential threat. Large swaths of the GOP want to do away with it, because it represents freedom-strangling government bloat or something, even though the net worth of the entire tax break comes out to, like, a single cruise missile, and has helped create thousands of jobs in states like Iowa, Texas, Kansas, and California. Republican congressmen in those states support upholding the credit, where it’s popular and proven job-creator.

Yet Romney has officially sided with the more conservative elements of his base, according to the Guardian: Shawn McCoy, a spokesman for Romney’s Iowa campaign, told the Des Moines Register earlier this week that Romney would “allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits”.

Which is interesting, because just a few months ago, when Democratic senators moved to end handouts to big oil, he stayed silent on that field-leveling move, and even hinted he’d continue to prop them up.

No, Romney has made a political calculation here; he thinks that it will win him some Tea Party bona fides if he sticks it to wind. But he’s already encountered some conservative opposition in places like Colorado, Iowa, and Pennsylvania—swing states where every move makes a difference.

 

Scotland Goes All-In for Clean Energy

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Creative Commons by Flickr User mooste

Finally, a country with the balls/courage/conviction to make a bold step into the clean future. Thank you, Scotland, for showing that it can be done.

Via Treehugger:

In 2010, Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, announced that his government was aiming to power all of Scotland with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Just a few months later, they kicked it up a notch or five: Scotland would seek to run entirely on renewable power by 2020. Most of that would come from ambitious onshore and offshore wind farms, as well as some smaller wave and tidal power projects—and there are 7 GW of such clean energy projects already completed or underway.

By the end of 2011, it looked as if all was going to plan, despite the requisite naysaying from skeptics. Here’s Triple Pundit on Scotland’s progress thus far:

2011 was an epic year for Scottish energy companies. The Department for Energy and Climate Change released figures recently demonstrating that the renewable energy sector saw more than £750 million of investment last year. Currently seven gigawatts (GW) of renewable projects are operational, under construction or approved … several projects are in the pipeline to eventually deliver 17 GW of power with an estimated investment of £46 billion … [Scotland] is already well on its way to hit its interim target of 31 percent.

Copyright by Moyan Brenn

And 2012 looks to continue that trend, especially as Salmond announced a new partnership with the United Arab Emirates, and Masdar, the Abu Dhabi clean energy company, today at the World Future Energy Summit. The two governments agreed to lay out an action plan this year that would allow them to pool resources and technology to accelerate cleantech development, initially focusing on offshore wind and carbon capture and sequestration.

Salmond acknowledged that one of the primary challenges to meeting the 2020 goal was finding ways to bring the costs of offshore wind projects down.

“The costs of offshore wind will have to be reduced by 20% to be competitive,” he said at a press conference today. Efforts to analyze and improve the supply chain will be a top priority, as will examining transmission challenges inherent in efficiently transporting electricity over long distances. Salmond repeatedly emphasized the need to commercialize offshore wind to make the technology available for wider deployment (and granting Scotland a foothold in one of the next generation’s most promising industries).

“The real prize is the technologies that we are refining together,” he said. “The result is to demonstrate the feasibility for deployment of those technologies around the world.”

By Flickr user David Shand

Other challenges to the burgeoning renewable sector are strictly political in nature: Salmond has been leading a push for Scottish independence, which has led the likes of Citigroup to warn investors of backing energy projects in the region. But Salmond dismissed such concerns today, asserting that there was great “strength in confidence in the renewable sector”, and pointed to a great potential for foreign investment.

Scotland’s push to become a leader in marine renewables (they’re also seeking to deploy as much as 2 GW of wave and tidal power) is not just laudable, but could prove visionary indeed. The effort could prove a major boon to Scotland’s economy, where wind could become a $30 billion dollar industry, according to forecasts from Scottish Enterprises. As such, it’s no surprise that the plan is raising high hopes in the renewable energy industry – and, no doubt, in Scotland.