WIND FOR TOMORROW

Larry Flowers, national technical director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)’s Wind Powering America, talked recently about the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. wind energy industry goal to provide 20% of the country’s electricity by 2030. He said such growth will cost $2.4 trillion but provide $444 billion in total economic benefits, cut four trillion gallons of water use by the other power generating industries and enormously reduce U.S. greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions.

Those who doubt the wind energy industry’s ability to grow that fast don’t know the men and women of the wind energy industry. Flowers: "Texas has a $7 billion wind farm planned that would have as many as 2,000 wind turbines and generate up to 4,000 MW of electricity…" That's just one installation.

The only thing that will slow wind power’s development is bad government policy. For the last few months a recalcitrant minority in the U.S. Senate has been using the arcane power of the filibuster to block extension of vital production tax credits (PTCs) and investment tax credits (ITCs). If that Senatorial bunch of pawns to the Old Energy industries remains entrenched, the U.S. wind industry will have no choice but to move to Europe and China. Given proper incentives, wind industry leaders expect to beat the 20% by 2030 goal by a good measure.

Flowers: "Initial input costs continue to be one of the biggest challenges for wind energy. New wind is more expensive than the old wind…But maintained turbines can last for decades."

Wind energy isn’t perfect and isn’t right everywhere. Flowers listed siting, permitting, access and cost considerations. But wind’s value as a boon to the environment and as a source of secure domestic energy is self-evident.

Flowers also pointed out wind energy’s special value to rural regions. Agricultural and grazing lands can do double duty as wind turbine sites for which farmers can earn land lease payments. In addition, rural turbine installations add jobs to local economies and offer new opportunity to rural youth.

This map was accurate through the end of 2007. It's out of date now. That's growth! (click to enlarge)

Wind energy is investment for the future
Jennifer Bremer, March 26, 2008 (High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal)

WHO
Larry Flowers, national technical director, Wind Powering America (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL)

The only thing in the way of this annual growth is a minority of Senators mired in yesterday. (slide from Wayne Walker of the American Wind Wildlife Institute, AWWI - click to enlarge)

WHAT
Flowers talked about the reasons behind wind energy’s huge and unprecedented growth, about its potential and about its special value for rural America.

WHEN
- 1981-2: first wind energy installations (in California)
- 1999: 4 U.S. states had wind energy installations
- 2008: 34 states have installations and the U.S. has more than 16, 600 megawatts

This is where wind can go in the next quarter century. (slide from Wayne Walker, AWWI - click to enlarge)

WHERE
- Flowers spoke at the 2008 Commodity Classic in Nashville, TN
- World wind energy leaders: Germany, the U.S., Spain, India and China.
- World total wind (January 2008): 90,521 megawatts.

WHY
- Flowers described the range of wind turbine sizes, appropriate for different purposes and locations: 1-kilowatt for family homes, 1.5 to 2.5-megawatts for most big wind farms and 3 to 10-megawatts (10 megawatts?) for offshore installations.
- Grants and tax credits are presently available to builders. In addition to public policy supporting wind, fossil fuel prices are rising while wind energy’s price is falling and that parity will become more real when fossil fuels are required to account for the cost of greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions.
- Environmental concerns (no water consumption, no particulate matter, no mercury, no GhGs) and energy security factors (no foreign imports) also favor wind’s growth.

Farmers and ranchers can get double duty and double income from their land. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Flowers: "It can be a wind turbine small enough to power a family home or one big enough to power an entire village. We are seeing more and more of them across the country side…"
- Flowers: "When wind is blowing and turbines are running, we decrease our dependence on natural gas and other fuels…"
- Flowers: "Renewable energy will be here forever…"