WIND – GOOD FOR WORLD, COUNTRY, STATE, HOME AND BUSINESS

The news is finally getting out: Wind power is Big Energy.

Around the world, wind is taking its place beside traditional grid supplies. China is building wind installations as fast as it can get turbines. The EU expects to get a quarter of its power from wind generated electricity in 2 decades.

Detractors have gleefully pointed out in recent years that wind energy-generated electricity provides only 1% of U.S. electricity. WRONG! In just the last 2 years, wind’s capacity has doubled and now provides ~2% of U.S. electricity. And you ain’t seen NOTHIN’ yet!

A recent U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) study found it is entirely feasible for wind to provide 20% of U.S. power by 2030. Denmark already gets almost that much. Spain and Portugal get almost half that much. Germany and Ireland get a quarter as much. And China has ambitions as great as those of the U.S.

People all over the U.S. are seeing turbines elegantly harvesting wind on plains and mountain ridges around them, learning how the business brings economic prosperity to communities, and realizing wind power is not some tree-huggers’ hobby horse but a very real energy business with a very real long-term potential.

In response to the spreading realization that there’s a “new kid” in the energy game, state leaders from sea to shining sea are building groups to identify where their resources are and find the right people to help them develop those resources.

Former Maine Governor Angus King is leading an effort to get research and design for a $15 billion offshore project in the Gulf of Maine and there is now, in Maine, an ongoing Governor's Task Force on Wind Power Development.

The industry is growing so fast there is a shortage of turbines and of trained and experienced workers. GE has quickly become one of the biggest manufacturers in the world and its growth shows no sign of slowing. It recently agreed to hire ALL the wind technician graduates of Mesalands Community College in New Mexico for the next three years.

There is another dimension to the wind business the industry calls “small” wind. Though it is not exactly part of wind’s role as Big Energy, small wind – very like the small, distributed generation of home- and business-sized solar panel installations – is very much a part of the industry’s big financial opportunity.

Definition of small wind: Up to 100 kilowatts.

Small wind installations increased 14% from 2006 to 2007. Many states, seeing tremendous economic and load-shaving opportunity in the desire of homeowners and small businesses to have their own electricity sources, are enacting net metering laws requiring utilities to buy distributed generation from small systems at retail instead of wholesale prices.

The world and the nation. (click to enlarge)

Wind energy is full of multi-purpose potential
Sassy Smallman, November 6, 2008 (Seacoastonline)

WHO
Angus King, former Governor, Maine; General Wesley Clark, principal, wind energy companies; U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

WHAT
The wind power industry is establishing itself as Big Energy around the world and in the U.S. and is causing leaders at the state level to see the opportunity and get behind building more.

Home and business. (click to enlarge

WHEN
- 2006: 8,000+ small wind systems installed, a $33 million market.
- 2007: 9,000+ small wind systems installed, a $42 million market.
- 2007: Wind energy worldwide reached 93+ gigawatts of capacity.
- 2008: The wind industry in the U.S. employees more than 50,000.
- Fall 2009: Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle will offer New England's first associates degree in wind power technology. Other community colleges already do so.
- Former Governor King’s Gulf of Maine offshore project would be built over 10 years.
- 2028: The wind industry could provide 500,000+ jobs.

WHERE
- China: Official wind energy target for 2020 is 20-to-30 gigawatts.
- Denmark gets 19% of its electricity from wind power.
- Spain and Portugal get 9% of their electricity from wind power.
- Germany and Ireland get 6% of their electricity from wind power.
- Community colleges in Wyoming, Illinois, Washington and New Mexico offer wind technology training courses.

WHY
- 50,000 U.S. workers are employed at wind installations and in service and supply chain (construction, transport, installation, operation, maintenance).
- DOE predicts wind companies can provide 500,000 jobs in 2028.
- Community college programs train technicians to operate, maintain and repair wind turbine generators.
- Polymarin Composites, on whose board General Wesley Clark sits, will build a $20 million in a wind turbine blade and housing facility in Little Rock, Ark, that will create 830 new jobs.
- TPI Composites opened a blade-manufacturing facility in Iowa that will eventually employ 500.
- Brevini, an Italian company, will build a $60 million turbine gear box factory in Muncie, Ind., that will create 450 permanent local jobs with an average $46,000/year salary.
- Unresolved questions about wind energy:
(1) Impact from wind installations’on bat populations;
(2) Harm to birds of prey populations from wind installations;
(3) Impact to local ecosystems from wind installations’ light pollution;
(4) Cost of offshore installation and maintainance;
(5) Off-shore wind farm impacts on sea mammals;
(6) Harm to whale species and prey from off-shore wind’s low-frequency ambient noise;
(7) Expense of transmission to get electricity generated by offshore installations to onshore utilities;
(8) Prolonged payback for small wind systems.
Example of small wind: The Aerovironment installation at Logan Airport, an array of 4-foot high, 5-blade turbines to capture wind energy coming off Boston Harbor.

The Aerovironment "small wind" installation at Logan Airport. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Sassy Smallman, writer, Seacoastonline: “A major success story in the renewable energy realm right now is wind power, here and abroad…Maine will not be left out of the equation…”
- Sassy Smallman, writer, Seacoastonline: “This is not to say there aren't unsolved issues regarding wind power… As the technology matures, one hopes, these issues will be dealt with and resolved.”