WINDPOWER 2008, DAY 1: TOMORROW IS HERE

The Governors of Texas and Kansas say so. The Mayor of Houston says so. Higher ups in the Departments of Energy and Agriculture say so. The heads of some of the world’s biggest energy companies say so.

Today is tomorrow.

Tomorrow is here.

Huh?

In the opening session of WindPower 2008, the U.S. wind industry’s annual convention – held this year in Houston, Texas, the U.S. energy capital – political and business leaders streamed to the podium to attest to the role of wind as not just the next green thing but as an essential factor in U.S. power generation.

How essential?

Mayor Bill White mentioned Houston’s rivalry with Dallas over which city uses more wind-generated electricity. When bragging rights in Texas are at stake, it’s serious business.

Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry followed Mayor White and proudly talked about Texas’ number one ranking among U.S. states in wind capacity. Texas set itself the goal of building nearly 6000 megawatts of wind-generated electricity by 2015 but will pass that mark this year. Perry: “People who talk about wind energy as a technology of the future clearly haven’t been to West Texas. The future of West Texas and wind energy is now. It’s not something that’s going to happen in the future.”

Perry compared wind energy entrepreneurs to oil wildcatters of the early 20th century: “Certain areas of our state have been literally revitalized by the influx…because of what you in this room have been able to take from a dream to reality…”

Boom. (click to enlarge)

Kansas Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius, frequently mentioned as a possible Obama running mate, described how hard she has fought Kansas’ conservative legislature on wind’s behalf because “…even when our legislature is not in session we’re the third windiest state in the country.”

Sebelius faced “…a bit of a firestorm…” to stop the building of two new coal-fired power plants in her state and, as a result, has steered Kansas away from its 75% reliance on coal. She also backed the formation of the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority because, now that wind energy is a factor, it needs new transmission.

Sebelius sees the potential for 7,000 to 10,000 megawatts of wind capacity in Kansas: “If a relatively conservative state, a long time energy producer that stayed with a 75% carbon footprint can embrace new energy strategies from the heartland, I can guarantee you it can happen everywhere…”

20% of U.S. power by 2030 will take a multipronged attack. (click to enlarge)

Thomas Dorr, Undersecretary for Rural Development at the Department of Agriculture, said bluntly: “The United States now leads the world in biofuels. We lead the world in bringing cellulosic ethanol to market. We lead the world in geothermal. We lead the world in solar thermal. And we lead the world in waste to energy. And lastly, and certainly not least, we have led the world three years running in new installed wind capacity…Renewables are now, in effect, mainstream.”

Dorr also talked about the Department of Agriculture’s efforts to build and facilitate new transmission in rural areas. Why? Because mainstream energy requires transmission: “…[R]enewable energy including wind is probably the greatest wealth creating opportunity for economic growth and jobs in rural areas in our lifetimes.”

The dynamic Alexander Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy (DOE), concluded the morning’s opening presentations. Introduced as the driving force behind the landmark DOE report recognizing wind’s potential to supply 20% of U.S. power by 2030, Karsner refused to take credit: “We did nothing more than the duty of government…to lay a roadmap for the nation to…the right kind of policies that would bring to bear the attributes of energy that we seek to have…affordable and domestic and secure and reliable clean energy - and wind energy is all of those things.”

(See WIND: YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET! for details on the wind industry’s newly announced goals and how the U.S. Department of Energy report says it will happen.)

Karsner declared his goal was only to “…permanently put to rest and allay the fears and mythology that wind energy can’t scale in a way that is consequential and relevant to our national objectives and the great challenges of the 21st century.”

Karsner is utterly committed to wind: “There is no other alternative energy source in the United States today that can possibly contribute as much to U.S. energy demand and curtailing CO2 emissions than wind can over the next 20 years.”

Later in the morning a roundtable of wind industry CEOs discussed the things their companies will need to do to achieve the 20% goal.

The political and business leaders agree on wind’s role in mitigating climate change and bringing energy production home. They are equally agreed on the obstacles wind faces. Governor Perry summarized them well: “There are three key obstacles…The first is the need to economically fund…competitive energy zones - aggregating our wind farms and building the transmission necessary to economically bring wind power to the grid…

“The second is the looming expiration of federal wind energy tax credits…[They] should definitely be renewed for another cycle...

“The third challenge is one for the technology experts: How to maintain the stability and reliability…I am very confident…we’ll have that problem solved in no time.”

Karsner defended the Bush administration’s inability to extend the current production tax credit (PTC): “The [Bush] administration supports the extension of the production tax credit…We believe the production tax credit should be improved. It should be lengthened. It should be durable. It should be reliable. It should be out of the zone of erratically implemented unreliable policy…”

The American Wind Energy Association’s Christine Real de Azua applauded these remarks: “We’re delighted the administration sees urgent action is needed to extend the production tax credit.”

AWEA is urging its members to be proactive on the PTCs. (click to enlarge)

The administration may see the need for urgent action but it has so far failed to take it. The leaders in Washington have, for whatever reason, failed to extend wind energy’s production tax credits just as they have failed to extend solar energy’s investment tax credits and failed to provide a coherent energy policy of substance and vision.

Governor Sebelius: “We definitely need new partners in Washington.”

The good news: The wind energy is here to help and here to stay.

The better news: When the biggest problem is democratically elected leaders, there is a remedy called an election.

Tell Congress to get busy or get out of the way at Support Renewable Energy Tax Credits

Policy matters: The removal of PTCs have always produced recessions in wind production. (click to enlarge)

WindPower 2008: Conference and Exhibition
June 1 – 4, 2008 (American Wind Energy Association)

WHO
- Welcome: Bill White, Mayor, Houston, TX; Randall Swisher, Director, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)
- Opening Session (Monday): Rick Perry (R), Governor, TX; Kathleen Sebelius (D), Governor, Kansas; Alexander Karsner, Asst. Scty, U.S. Department of Energy; Thomas C. Dorr, Under Scty, U.S. Department of Agriculture; and others

WHAT
The annual conclave of the wind energy industry promises to be quite a do, with a battery of noted speakers, an exhibition floor teeming with innovation and accomplishment and a message to deliver: Wind will get the job done!

WHEN
- Day 1: June 2, 2008
- Schedule-at-a-glance

In order to reach its goals, wind will need a lot - the red lines - of new transmission. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- Deep in the heart of Texas and in the center of the energy world at the Geroge R. Brown Convention Center
1001 Avenida de las Americas
Houston, TX 77010
- Directions

WHY
- WindPower is the most significant wind energy industry gathering of the year.
- This year’s event has almost 800 exhibitors, up from 420 last year.
- There are 12,000 attendees.
- Wind energy capacity grew 27% in 2006 and 45% in 2007.
- Wind was second only to natural gas as a source of new electricity generation in the U.S. in 2007.
- What AWEA is doing to make the event environmentally friendly

click to enlarge

QUOTES
- Randall Swisher, Executive Director, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA): “The report shows that wind power can provide 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030…[it] identifies the central constraints to achieving 20% - transmission, siting, manufacturing and technology - and demonstrates how each can be overcome. As an inexhaustible domestic resource, wind strengthens our energy security, improves the quality of the air we breathe, slows climate change, and revitalizes rural communities.”