Yep, the wind industry installed over 5GW of new wind in 2007. In a single year we increased our installed capacity by 45%. We've got an installed capacity of over 16GW now. Imagine what we could do if congress would just pass a long term PTC. For what it's worth, in the hay day of coal plant construction the peak was about 16GW/yr. In the early 80's if I'm not mistaken. Full Article
This is the highlight: Report highlights include: Installations in the last quarter of 2007 alone (2,930 MW) surpassed the amount installed in all of 2006 (2,454 MW). Texas consolidates its lead; wind power also expands at a strong pace in Midwest and Northwest. The states with the most cumulative wind power capacity installed are: Texas - 4356 MW California- 2439 MW Minnesota- 1299 MW Iowa- 1273 MW Washington- 1163 MW I think the US has now passed Spain the 16GW is around 4 million households powered by wind. But there are many environmentalists fighting wind power on the east coast (Ted Kennedy is on) so there is still alot of NIMBY. www.awea.org/Market_Report_Jan08.pdf
1.8 cents/kWh or whatever the production tax credit is up to (might be $0.019/kWh now). It's nothing compared to what coal gets in terms of subsidies... not even close.
Thanks for the info. That's actually lower than I thought. The fuel charge here is 5 cent/kWh so it is getting mighty close to Wind Plants being profitable without the subsidy.
they will be more profitable if allowed to expand. as they expand, the support costs are lower. less open land to run wires means smaller wire can be used. run them like telephone poles and the cost drops considerably... heck!! paint them rainbow colors if ya have to... team colors for diff cities, whatever... i'd much rather look at them then smog any day!!
Yeah, wind is still improving and the costs of fossil fuels are rising. The only problem with wind is that it's variable, but here in Colorado it does save us from having to burn a fair amount of NG. @ Sulman.... Texas has done a lot right with wind power. They're transmission rules are being looked at by other states as a model for how to get transmission lines out to remote areas. West Texas has HUGE wind "reserves" and the texans are exploiting them and reaping the economic benefits. The ironic thing is that the foundations for this success were laid when dubya was govnah.
This is a good thing, but I get the impression that the owners of these ventures aren't most american: NPR : Winds of Change Blow into Roscoe, Texas Why aren't American companies doing this? Or are they?
They are. FPL (Florida Power & Light) actually has a pretty massive wind portfolio and I think they have a fair number of farms in TX. Xcel energy has a fair amount of wind that, I believe, they own and operate. I'll take all comers because there are huge benefits for us either way.
If Texas keeps this up they will soon be thought of as the "Wind Capital of the USA" instead of being known as the oil capital. Awesome!
They already are and I think that they fancy the idea. They've done some very good work in this area.
I think Colorado should build more wind farms. It gets pretty windy here (actually, it's pretty windy pretty much anywhere on the Great Plains). I saw a bit on The Daily Show (I think) where they were "interviewing"/poking fun at Ted Kennedy because he was opposing a project to put some wind turbines off the east coast. The reason? It would "spoil the view" from his seaside mansion. TDS showed a graphic of what the view would look like, and you could barely see the turbines on the horizon. Crap like that is one of the reasons why we're not making strides in wind power. People tend to think of the turbines as eyesores. As if oil rigs and refineries are attractive....
i agree...ole teddy preaches like a democrat but realizes his family's republican ways is how his bread is buttered
He's going to lose that fight. Just a matter of time. He (along with many others) has managed to drag this out for a LOOOONG time, but time ain't on his side. Meanwhile, 20GW of wind were installed globally in 2007, a 30% increase from the year before. That's very expansive growth!
You're right, and we are. You're new to the state right (I thought I read somewhere that you had recently moved from elsewhere)? We've been expanding our renewable mandates and Xcel energy is doing its part. I'd like to see some concentrated solar power plants in the state, but for now more wind is good enough.
Yeah, we moved here last Christmas. We got a gift subscription to 5280 from our real estate agent, and one issue was about energy production in CO. It was a pretty interesting read. I was pleased to see the expanding renewable energy, BUT oil and gas exploration is expanding too (I think on the western slope??). Incidentally, I've been looking for jobs in the environmental sector, and I've noticed a fair number of jobs for oil/gas permitting.
Yeah, the gas (I don't think there's any oil exporation) industry is going nuts, here and in Wyoming. The gas production is, as you say, predominantly on the western slope. The Roan Plateau is the hot button area right now. It's sorta like the ANWR of Colordao natural gas.
