YOU PICK THE QUESTION, WIND ENERGY IS THE ANSWER

Introducing a panel of wind industry heavyweights to start the second day of WindPower 2009, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) President Don Furman summarized the nation’s current economic travails and then looked out at the audience. “And yet,” he said. “Look at this conference. It’s huge. Why? Well, you pick the question and the wind industry is the answer.”

Huge is actually too small a word. Humongous would be better. Attendance is still climbing and looks like it will pass 21,000, making this the biggest energy event ever, anywhere.

It is an atmosphere that encourages hyperbole. Wind is not the answer to whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe (though it speaks well for the intelligence of earthbound entrepreneurs, given even the meagerest of incentives and supports).

The wind industry is a good answer to the current need for new jobs. It can deliver them in big numbers (in the hundreds of thousands) and be a driving force behind an economic recovery. Ready to scale up around the world in gigawatt numbers, it is as good an answer as anybody has to global climate change (especially when coupled with Energy Efficiency and the other New Energies). If the question is about national security or dependence on foreign energy sources, what better answer is there than an ever-renewing domestic power supply?

click to enlarge

That was a big part of the message delivered by the power players who came together for the morning’s first presentation, moderated by AWEA past President Jim Walker.

Vic Abate, Vice President of Renewables at GE Energy, one of the biggest wind industry companies in the world and the biggest in the U.S., offered perspective on the current economic downturn and atmosphere of rising political hope. He said the industry was ready to meet new challenges.

“We used to turn out about 10 turbines a week…” Abate said. “Last year we made about 13 a day…To get to the numbers discussed, 20-to-25%, it would take a turbine every 5 minutes…This is something that industry is poised and ready to deliver…There’s really not a technical challenge we can’t solve…”

Abate was, of course, referring to the wind industry’s goal of providing 20% of U.S. power by 2030, a goal some find daunting though industry growth remains on track to meet that amount of capacity in that time frame.

The other subject the group discussed was the challenges the wind industry faces and what it needs to meet them. The panel unanimous on 2 key needs: (1) A stable long-term government policy, and (2) a modern, efficient national transmission system.

Ditlev Engel, President and CEO of Vestas Wind, the biggest wind manufacturer in the world, said he liked the idea of taking on big challenges. He called them “Bee-HAGs” (Big Hairy Audacious Goals, BHAGs, from Building Your Company's Vision). Engel believes that “tough targets” lead to bigger accomplishments. “The amount of money invested is nothing compared to what we have done.”

click to enlarge

Declan Flanagan, CEO of E.ON Climate & Renewables, brought up the point that loomed large in all the their minds, the point they returned to over and over. He pointed out that New Energy growth is policy driven. “All energy is policy driven, “ Flanagan said.

A Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), Flanagan said, is the most readily achievable policy to drive investment. The RES presently fighting its way through Congress is likely to require U.S. utilities to obtain 25% of their power by 2025. It is that kind of long term policy that will create long term growth in the New Energy industries and force the building of the new transmission system so urgently needed. With a growth-driving policy and a new transmission system, wind can become not just good for the environment and the energy supply, but good for the entrepreneur.

Policy was on these mens’ minds because, as Michael Polsky, President and CEO of Invenergy, pointed out, “People say leave it to the free market…[but] the free market does not deal with the long-term…We need long term energy policy…the RES sets long term policy…”

How big and audacious a goal is making a company from tiny Denmark the biggest turbine manufacturer in the world? That's what Engel, who likes BHAGs, did. (click to enlarge)

General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, sat in on the panel because he is now a wind industry entrepreneur, as B.V. Director of Emergya Wind Technologies. He talked about not just a long-term RES but a long-term stimulus plan. He reminded the audience that the recent stimulus bill’s provisions expire at the end of 2010 and that’s just a figurative moment away for wind energy companies that invest by the billions. “We’ve got a market that’s been frozen, its just now opening up…” Clark said. “It would certainly help if we pass the RES and keep the stimulus bill in place…”

click to enlarge

GE’s Abate agreed and added that it is quickly becoming time to make manufacturing decisions for 2010 and beyond.

Jim Walker, Vice-Chairman of the Board of enXco and the panel’s moderator, asked about international competition. “If you can dream it, you can do it – wind needs to dream big,” Engel answered. He pointed out that China has an ambitious goal and the U.S. needs an equally ambitious goal. That’s why it needs an RES. “Copenhagen is coming,” Engel reminded his fellow power brokers, referring to the world summit scheduled for December of this year at which it is expected the Obama administration will involve the U.S. in a greenhouse gas emissions reduction treaty for the first time in more than a decade.

click to enlarge

Walker turned to General Clark for the last word. “The last word is a dirty word,” Clark said. “Politics.” He called on the audience to follow AWEA into the political fray and do everything possible to get their Congressional representatives to pass the RES and renew the stimulus package. He acknowledged that the industry had done great things in the past through AWEA-organized action. That is why, Clark said, "...Big Coal is a little bit worried about Big Wind.”

General Clark was, as always, eloquent and inspiring, but the last word of the day really went to Polsky. At the press conference following the panel discussion, a reporter asked about political opponents to the RES. Furman said they were simply ill-informed, believing that such a standard would impose unobtainable or unnecessarily costly burdens (which multiple studies show they won't).

That’s when Polski spoke up. “I’m not an environmentalist,” he said. “But look at higher fossil fuel prices, national security, the volatility of energy prices, economic development, the greenhouse gas problem – renewable energy solves all of it. And it lasts forever. Why would you fight it?…Why would somebody not do something that’s so good?”