Windpower 2008: A Texas-Sized Conference

My first day at the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA)** annual conference and exhibition in Houston has given me one more nugget of evidence that things are just a little bigger in Texas. WINDPOWER 2008 is expected to draw over 10,000 attendees over the course of the four-day event - up from 7,000 attendees at the 2007 event in Los Angeles.

The massive 1/4 mile long exhibition floor at the George R. Brown Convention Center includes displays from some 770 exhibitors, ranging from wind turbine, and component manufacturers, to wind energy financiers, wind farm siting professionals, and construction/maintenace equipment vendors (to name just a few). 

The activity on the floor of the exhibition hall is only a part of WINDPOWER 2008 as the conference program will feature 300 speakers and moderators, 150 poster presentations, and over 50 panel sessions. The panel topics are organized into six daily tracks: Finance, Wind Power Growth, Resource Assesment, Key Issues, Wind at the Epicenter, and my personal favorite, Policy.

It is plainly clear to myself, and anyone attending this year's event in Houston, that wind energy is big business - a far cry from the days where wind energy was seen as a fringe power source only being harness by a few rural landowners and aging off-grid hippies. 

It seems fitting that AWEA's biggest conference to date takes place in here in Texas. Why? Texas has installed more wind energy and is planning more transmission infrastructure in the U.S. than any other U.S. state. Add to that, Houston's position as a leader in the oil and gas industry, and you have what seems like a good fit. I just wish it wasn't so humid.

It is quite clear to me, and anyone else attending this year's event in Houston that wind energy is big business - a far cry from the days where it was seen as a fringe power source only being harnessed by a few rural landowners and aging off-grid hippies. Wind energy has finally come of age. 

Stay tuned to ecopolitology and Green Options for more conference updates throughout the week.

**Very special thanks to the folks at AWEA for their generous support, which has afforded me the opportunity to attend this excellent event and report back to you all about all of the goings on.

Big Week for Vestas

[From my post at CleanTechnica on 5.9.2008] Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems (VWS:DC) had a big week. First, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer announced that they would be building a tower manufacturing plant in Colorado. Second, Vestas reported a 94 percent jump in earnings in the first quarter of 2008, as compared to the same period last year.

Although they have yet to disclose the location of the new tower manufacturing facility, it would be situated to complement the company's fist North American blade manufacturing plant, which recently opened its doors in Windsor, Colorado.

For the tower plant, the company will need a large parcel of land served by freight rail, a combination that Northern Colorado can provide at several locations, including the Windsor location, where construction proceeds on phase two of the blade plant. According to the Northern Colorado Business Review, more than 1,000 new jobs could result from further expansion of Vestas' manufacturing presence (read the rest of this story at CleanTechnica).

Sources:

• Northern Colorado Business Review
• Bloomberg

Other posts about the cleantech industry:

• "Can 'Low-Hanging Fruit' be Sexy: Two Energy Efficiency Stocks
• "Solar System Leases Taking Industry by Storm"
• "The Unlimited Potential of American Wind Energy: AWEA"

Photo: Vestas Wind Systems

DOE: Wind Can Provide 20% of Our Electricity by 2030

A report released on Monday by the Department of Energy indicates that the U.S. could meet 20% of its electricity needs with wind by 2030. While achieving that goal is technically feasible, the report estimates it would require $197 billion in investments, especially in the infrastructure of interstate transmission.

Unfortunately, the DOE stopped short of endorsing any specific policy that would help reach the 20% goal. And with considerable uncertainty about the current state of renewable energy tax credits, one might ask what policy vehicle would get us there that quickly.

The expenditure needed to reach the 20% goal would only be $43 billion, or 2%, higher than if the U.S. didn't add any wind whatsoever and reached the same power capacity from other sources, the DOE and its industry collaborators said in the report.

Andy Karsner, DOE assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy called arguments against wind power as an unreliable and marginal source of power,"frivolous and uninformed," at a Monday press conference.

The report also highlighted the importance of proper siting of wind projects, as well as mitigation of effects on wildlife and other environmental issues. It noted that the 20% outcome would reduce cumulative water consumption by the electric sector by 8% from 2007 through 2030. This would be especially important for the arid states of the interior West.

Department of Energy Press Release
CNN Money
Photo: ccgd

New Zealand: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Gas

Investment in renewable energy generation in New Zealand, especially geothermal and wind power, is already more attractive than investment in gas-fired generation, according to a story in Friday's New Zealand Herald.

"Renewables are by far the most economic proposition, especially geothermal," said Bruce Parkes of Wellington-based Contact Energy. "But the cost of wind and baseload gas is roughly equal with a carbon price of $23 and gas at $7 a petajoule, which is around the current price."

Last December, lawmakers in New Zealand proposed a 10-year moratorium on the construction of any new fossil fuel-burning power plants. But officials from Contact Energy believe that goal can be met without the need for the moratorium - simply because the economics are favorable.

Other Posts on Energy Costs:

• "Data: US Electricity Rates Vary. But They're All Going Up"
• "Straw Poll: How Much do You Pay for Electricity?"
• "Consumer Choice and the Eco-Social Externalities of Coal"
  

New Zealand Herald
Photo: Robyn Gallagher

Winter Storms + Wind Farms = Falling Electricity Prices

[Originally published at CleanTechnica on 4.18.2008] The powerful winter storms that moved across Europe in March precipitated a considerable spike in electricity supply on the European grid, thanks to continental wind farms.

Wind speeds of 100 mph were recorded across Europe and topped 135 mph at the Czech Republic’s highest mountain, Snezka. The surplus electricity on the grid, produced mostly by German and Danish wind farms pushed prices down by 12% on the spot market.

Traders buying and selling round-the-clock power reported that the ‘day ahead’ price in central Europe’s power market dropped to €49.5 ($76) per megawatt hour compared with €56 at the end of the previous week, according to a piece at Planet Ark. Unfortunately, the article also suggests that sudden drops in electricity prices on the spot market have little effect on end-use rates.

This story points out one of the most persistent ‘problems’ of large-scale wind energy development- how do we address the peaks and valleys on the grid presented by wind power, and how do we reconcile those with power plants which cannot be easily adjusted to deal with those peaks?

Several options of dealing with the storage issue have emerged including compressed air, hydro pump-backs, and more efficient flywheel designs. These are all good steps, and more will undoubtedly emerge. That is why it is important that the ‘problem’ of storing wind energy be framed as an opportunity for technological innovation, and not as a justification for more coal-fired power plants.

Photo: © Kamil Sobócki | Dreamstime.com

The Synergy Between Wind Energy and Freight Trains

There were a pair of articles in Sunday's Denver Post about the synergy between the wind energy and heavy rail industries (I suppose you could also say there is a synergy between heavy rail and the energy industry, more broadly defined, as residents of the mountain west are all to familiar with the mile-long coal trains and natural gas filled tanks criss-crossing the landscape and creating delays).

When Vestas Wind Systems announced that they would locate their first North American blade plant in Windsor, Colorado, company officials said part of the reason for doing so was because of the site's proximity to the regional rail network. Each blade being produced at the Windsor facility will be about 150 feet, and at full production capacity, Vestas expects to roll out about six of those blades per day, making rail transport quite attractive, to say the least.

Now, Beaumont, Texas-based Dragon Wind has thrown its hat into the ring and announced its plans to open a plant in Lamar, Colorado that will build 262-foot steel wind turbine towers. Officials of Dragon parent Modern Group Ltd. said Colorado's stature in wind power and rail access to Lamar were keys in siting the plant.


Rising Fuel Costs Making Rail-Freight More Attractive

Skyrocketing fuel prices are contributing to noticeable shifts in the country's freight-by-rail traffic. Add to this, locomotive fuel efficiency that has increased 80 percent since 1980 and you end up with a train that can carry a ton of freight for 423 miles on a gallon of fuel. Steve Raabe writes in the Denver Post article:

"Record high energy prices — especially for diesel that fuels locomotives — have hit railroads as hard as any other transportation sector. But rail's ability to handle trains with hundreds of cars gives it an efficiency advantage compared with tractor-trailer freight."

I will say this in reply to all of the above: If the time ever comes that I am stopped for ten minutes in downtown Fort Collins to let a freight train pass by with car after car loaded with wind turbine blades from nearby Windsor, rather than car after car of liquified natural gas from
the Powder Basin in Wyoming, or forest products from Idaho and Montana, I won't mind waiting.

Photo: disckychick

Related Posts:

• "Vestas Quietly Opens First North American Blade Plant"
  
• "New Vestas Plant Spurs Growth in Supply Chain"
• "A Big Week for Vestas Wind Systems"
  

Video: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (w/clock)

I recently recorded this short video of a grid-tied vertical-axis wind turbine and accompanied clock at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Although it sounds very windy in the video, I would guess it was gusting to only 12-14 knots. Running time is 50 seconds [please pardon the excited whimpers of my Labrador who knows he's going to play with the tennis ball].

A Solar and Wind Monopoly?

Just in time for the barrage of Earth Day campaigns (some more dubious than others), Mr. Moneybags is going green. Hasbro announced Monday that it's iconic boardgame, Monopoly, is replacing its old-style utilities, 'Water Works' and 'Electric Company,' with the more environmentally-conscious 'Solar Energy' and 'Wind Energy.'

Phil Jackson, of Hasbro Games said in a release, “In a nod to the efforts of countries worldwide to increase the effectiveness and availability of renewable energy sources, we decided to feature Solar Energy and Wind Energy on the game board." The new edition, called Monopoly Here and Now, will be coming out this fall.

It's great that Monopoly will be jumping on the renewable energy bandwagon, as this can only help grow public consciousness about cleaner energy sources. On a more nit-picky note, the game will be departing from its monopolistic foundations by eliminating the two utilities. Along with the railroads, the electric and water companies are the only monopolistic enterprises in the game. But it would be difficult to argue that either solar energy or wind energy are monopolies.

I know that kind of takes the fun out of the move, but I just can't help it sometimes.

Yahoo Finance
Photo: Saffana

New Vestas Plant Spurs Growth in Colorado Supply Chain

Woodward Governor, which designs, manufactures and services energy controls for engines, aircraft and industrial turbines and electrical power system equipment, plans to add a new production line in Northern Colorado expanding its wind turbine inverter business. The move comes just weeks after Vestas Wind Energy opened its first North American turbine blade plant in nearby Windsor, CO.

"The wind business has just taken off here," CEO Tom Gendron said. The company made a commitment to its customers to expand its U.S. production, a move Gendron called critical to customers' "future sales success."

Woodward also announced a new Workforce Initiative that connects educators, primary employers and the work force. Front Range Community College will begin offering a two-year degree next fall to train technicians suited for the green-collar industry, including jobs at Woodward.

The collaboration will work to retrain unemployed or underemployed residents for careers in the clean-energy sector. According to a 2007 survey, the region has more than 30,000 underemployed workers, many of whom leave the region to work every day.

Woodward Governor’s sales increased 20 percent during the first quarter of 2008, which ended Dec. 31, and it is forecasting an 8 percent to 10 percent increase in sales this year, including $100 million in wind energy sales.

Fort Collins Coloradoan

Greenwashing Your Electricity

As of writing, the Tri-State Generation and Transmission homepage has a total of eight wind turbines on it; a curious number considering it is eight more than they have on their entire grid. This seems an oddity considering the tremendous wind energy resource within their sprawling service territory. But this is most likely about to change, as Colorado's co-ops are now required to come up with 10% of their energy from renewable sources.

It is unfortunate that Tri-State has resisted developing their excellent wind resource for so long. Now that there is a real danger of another lapse in federal renewable energy tax credits, wind energy developers will not exactly be lining up at Tri-State's Westminster, Colorado headquarters.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission provides power to 44 co-ops spread across 250,000 square miles of Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and New Mexico. Tri-State is itself a co-op (sort of). Maybe a better way of looking at the organization is that it is a co-op of co-ops; Tri-State is owned by the 44 co-ops it serves. And this institutional structure is not exactly conducive to change.

Video: Failing and Flailing Wind Turbinel

I am obviously in a multimedia phase.
You wanna see a Danish wind turbine explode? Me too.

Community Wind Faces Financing & Market Obstacles

The largest wind turbine in the world owned by a school district is about to go online in Wray, CO. Apparently, the parts for the Americas Wind Energy turbine came from all over the world to tiny Wray, population 2100 and falling. The blades came from Spain, the generator from Holland, the tower from South Korea and the copper wire came from Canada. Ironically, even Americas Wind Energy itself is not an American company, it is Canadian.

After originally deciding on the size and type of turbine needed, the community found they couldn’t buy just one turbine in that size range. Because of the bottleneck in American wind turbine production, the large wind farms and energy development companies are dominating the turbine purchasing market, trying to get their projects online before the end of 2008 when the production tax credit (PTC) is currently set to expire. The current market uncertainty is favoring the large turbine orders, whilst moving small orders to the fringes.

It is possible this bottleneck will loosen as Vestas has just opened its first North American turbine blade facility in Windsor, CO. The wind giant has recently taken an order (pdf) for 109 turbines in the US that they said would not affect any of their existing orders. However, E.ON Climate and Renewable Energy, who placed the order, will not be scheduled to have all 109 turbines up and running by the end of 2008. Their project is not projected to be finished until the middle of 2009.

It is my guess that even if the PTC does not pass this year, it will pass at the beginning of next year, when there is a strong chance there will be a Democrat in the White, and maybe even a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It is also quite likely that Congress would extend the PTC retroactively back to the beginning of 2009, as if it never expired. Even if that is the case, there is certain to be some downturn in the renewable energy industry as investors may get a little sheepish without the security of a production tax credit this year.

Fort Morgan Times
Photo: Americas Wind Energy (AWE 52-900)

Spanish Renewable Energy Firms Eye US Market

Obscured by all of the buzz about the opening of wind energy giant Vestas' first North American blade plant, a delegation of about 30 renewable energy executives and government officials from Spain recently visited Colorado to learn about investment and expansion opportunities in the region. Some of the visitors were already in the US for the dedication of Acciona’s new concentrating solar power plant outside of Las Vegas. The Spanish delegation met with state and local public officials, including Gov. Ritter, and toured a number of sites including the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden and Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Others involved in the visit include the US Department of Commerce, Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. and the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp.

It is no secret that Spanish renewable energy companies like Acciona, Iberdola, and Finavera are aggressively positioning themselves to be major manufacturers in the in the American renewable energy industry. The Spanish delegation is not visiting Colorado on a whim. The state has recently shown with the opening of the new Vestas plant, that it is willing to give cash incentives and employment bonuses to clean energy businesses who want to set up shop in the Centennial State.

Photo Credit: TheFriendlyFiend via flickr

Vestas Quietly Opens First North American Blade Plant

Danish wind-energy giant, Vestas, has apparently already opened the doors to its $60 million, 400,000 square foot blade manufacturing facility in Windsor, Colorado. Even though the plant was not officially scheduled to open until this week, The Coloradoan has reported that manufacturing stealthily began as much as four weeks ago. The Windsor factory is the company's first manufacturing facility in North America.

Construction on the plant began in June 2007 with the intent of having a 200,000-square-foot facility with 400 workers. Those workers were to run four production-lines and create 1200 turbine blades per year (enough for 400 turbines). But, as I reported back in November, Vestas announced they would bump the total number of manufacturing jobs up to 650. Since making the announcement, company officials have been relatively tight-lipped about the potential change in production output brought on by the addition of employees.

With 35,000 wind turbines installed, and a market share of 23%, Vestas has 15,000 employees worldwide. In the USA, Vestas has installed more than 4,000 megawatts of wind energy. The company hopes that the centrally-located blade facility in Colorado will ease the bottleneck in US turbine manufacturing and deployment.

Photo Credit: sky#walker via flickr

Fort Collins Coloradoan

Denver Post

Greening of the USA: An Ecopolitical Animation

(Click on image for animation) From the US Department of Energy's Wind Powering America Year End Wind Capacity maps of the U.S. from 1999-2007. Excellent visual representation of where wind energy is being developed, along with the rate and intensity of that development.

2007 in Green News (revised)

It's that time of year when media outlets (including some blogs) bombard us with their rankings of the top stories of the year. In stead of adding another to the lists of rankings, I am just providing a few links (in no particular order) to a few of the green lists and bests-of, for the year 2007.

1.Preston Koerner over at Jetson Green has compiled a comprehensive collection of the Ultimate Green News Year in Review for 2007. The links are divided into 6 subcategories ranging from Cleantech to Politics to Business and to Architecture.

2. According to an article in the Fort Collins (CO) Coloradoan, the top business story in Northern Colorado this year is Larimer County's embracing of the New Energy Economy. The article sites the news that Vestas Wind and AVA Solar will bring 1200 renewable energy jobs to the region by completing the construction of their new manufacturing facilities.

3. David Wigder takes a look back at some empirical data to show the recent upswing in attention to green marketing in 2007.

4. TreeHugger put together a list of their top 10 posts of the year, which includes some that are humorous, some that are serious, and some that are just a little curious.

5. Finally, the good people at Grist put together two lists. The first, from David Roberts and Lisa Hymas runs down the top 15 green stories of 2007, which is thoughtful and well put together (and which cites the backlash against coal as the number one story and the number one enemy of the human race). The second, a Best of Grist List put together by Sarah van Schagen and Sarah K. Burkhalter takes a more whimsical approach to green trends, pop culture, and material goods.

6. I would be remiss to not include two very worthy compilations at the Climate & Energy Project blog. There is some very good information on advances (and retreats) in net-metering in the states and there is also a collection of wind updates from 2007 that has lots of neat links.

Enjoy and have a happy and safe New Year!

Photo: New Vestas plant construction in Windsor, CO- David Persons/ Windsor Beacon Library

Small Wind Remains in Farm Bill

Renewable energy advocates are clearly disappointed with the recently passed version of the 2007 energy bill. Yes, there is an important increase in auto fuel efficiency, but considering that CAFE hasn't been upped in nearly 30 years, I don't think Congress should be patting themselves on the back too hard for that one. However, a little piece of renewable energy legislation may have sneaked into the farm bill without too many Republicans noticing, and it just might have a chance of getting passed into law.

The version of the farm bill passed by the Senate on Friday contains a small wind tax provision - the first in more than 20 years. The provision is a 30% investment tax credit (up to $4,000) for the installation of small wind systems. The credit is available for farmers, small businesses and homeowners for new wind systems up to 10 kw. This may be another piece of evidence of a farm bill in energy bill's clothing.

The tax-credit has remained a part of the farm bill despite an attempt to scuttle it. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) and others defeated an amendment sponsored by Lamar Alexander (R-TN) that would have limited the small wind investment tax credit to farmers and small businesses, thus excluding owners of rural residential property and commercial property suitable for small wind from taking advantage of what has traditionally been viewed as a burden. It comes as no surprise to see Sen. Alexander championing the anti-wind cause once again. The Senator from Tennessee has been surprisingly outspoken about wind energy policy in the U.S., even going as far as suggesting that it ruins mountaintops (to say nothing of the practice of 'mountaintop removal' in TN and other coal-heavy states). It is also interesting to note that Alexander owns property on Nantucket Island in MA, not far at all from the proposed Cape Wind project. Coincidence?! I think not.

I suppose I shouldn't be trumpeting this small victory too loudly, President Bush hasn't signed the bill into law yet, so I suppose there is also a chance that the small tax credit will get axed from the bill just like all of the other renewable energy legislation.

Video: Wind Energy gets no love...(very funny)

I forgot what a great advertisement this is. I put it here so I could find it very easily the next time I need a good laugh... (courtesy of CorporateCitizen07 )

Global Weirding

Monday night was one of those nights that I thought my house was going to blow off of its foundation. The wind is hardly uncommon up here. My house is located at an elevation of about 6,000 ft. (kids stuff by CO standards), but it sits on an exposed hillside in the foothills of the Rockies which just gets pounded by the prevailing NW west sweeping down towards the Plains.
Usually after a night like that during the month of December I would expect to wake up and either start a fire in the woodstove or go outside and try to find the newspaper which is somewhere in my driveway under 8" of snow. However today was not your usual day, it was 70 freaking degrees...in the shade! Now the record for Fort Collins is 70 degrees, but I am located almost a 1000 feet above that. Just to be sure my cheap little thermometer wasn't wrong I crosschecked my data with a rather reliable weather source - a NOAA weather station located on top of Horsetooth Mountain only a half mile away and about 400ft higher. Well it turns out my thermometer may have been a little off after all, the NOAA site said the high was actually 72 degrees!

New and Improved! Vestas Plant in Colorado

Strong third quarter profits have enabled Danish wind energy giant Vestas to announce the planned expansion of their first and only North American blade plant. The Danish company made the announcement on Tuesday despite the fact that the Windsor, CO facility has yet to produce a single turbine blade. Construction of the plant began in June and Vestas officials say it will be online by early 2008.

Vestas originally planned to hire about 400 full-time employees to operate four production lines, producing 1,200 blades per year. The ramped-up plan would add another 250 full time employees and produce 1800 blades per year; an increase that represents a roughly 50 percent expansion of its production capacity.

Vestas is not waiting for an extension of the federal production tax credit, which is set to expire at the end of this year. Or perhaps they know something we don't. According to the report,

"Vestas is now launching an international information campaign aimed at putting wind power at the top of the global energy agenda, where the political targets in many countries have already been defined. Detailed legislation still needs to be put in place for the industry to make investments in the necessary capacity and the skills required."

The report also states:

"Our goal is that at least ten percent of the world’s power production should be based on wind energy by 2020. To achieve this, the wind turbine industry must install a total of more than 900,000 MW over the next 13 years."

Vestas is no stranger to even the most casual observer of the renewable energy business and anyone who invested in the company (listed on the Copenhagen OMX exchange) should be smiling broadly as the value of the stock has more than tripled in the last year. I am no Jim Cramer, but it is my guess this stock is not done climbing. I will be following Vestas closely as they move into the broadening North American market.