United States becomes world leader in wind power

By Tracy Seipel

Aggressive investments in 2008 helped the United States surpass Germany to become the world's leader in wind power, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Energy.

And for the fourth consecutive year, the United States was home to the fastest-growing wind power market in the world.

Wind power capacity increased by 60 percent, or 8,558 megawatts, in 2008, representing $16.4 billion in federal and private investments in new wind projects. Total U.S. wind capacity at the end of 2008 was 25,369 megawatts, compared with 23,933 for Germany, the Energy Department said.

That raised to nearly $45 billion the total wind power investment in the United States since the 1980s. One megawatt of electricity generally is enough to power 750 to 1,000 homes.

Wind now delivers nearly 2 percent of the nation's electricity supply.

"Wind energy will be a critical factor in achieving the president's goals for clean energy, while supporting news jobs," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement with the report. "While the United States leads the world in wind energy capacity, we have to continue to support research and development as we expand renewable energy deployment."

The report, prepared by Ryan Wiser and Mark Bolinger of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, provides an overview of trends in the U.S. wind power market in 2008. While the $16.4 billion figure is impressive — total investment in wind
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was about $9 billion in 2007 and about $4 billion in 2006 — investments are expected to drop this year, Bolinger said in an interview.

"The economic situation that is causing trouble elsewhere in other industries is also impacting the wind industry," he said.

Among the report's findings:

# Wind projects accounted for 42 percent of all new electric generating capacity in the United States last year.

# Growth is distributed across much of the country. Texas leads the nation with 7,118 megawatts of new wind capacity installed, followed by Iowa (2,791 megawatts) and California (2,517 megawatts). For a long time, California led the United States in installed wind capacity.

"It's easier to build wind in Texas because the regulatory and permitting process is not as onerous as it is in California,'' Bolinger said.

He noted that Texas also benefits from more widespread wind development, while California has essentially three or four concentrated areas where wind resources are strong. They include the Altamont Pass wind farms along Interstate 580, Solano County, Tehachapi (south east of Bakersfield) and San Gorgonio (near Palm Springs).

# Market growth is spurring manufacturing investments in the United States. Several major foreign wind turbine manufacturers either opened or announced new U.S. wind turbine manufacturing plants last year. Likewise, new and existing U.S.-based manufacturers either initiated or scaled up production. The American Wind Energy Association estimates that roughly 8,400 new domestic manufacturing jobs were added in the wind sector in 2008 alone.

The Energy Department on Thursday also announced it has awarded a total of $13.8 million to 28 new wind energy projects. Two companies in California were among the recipients. Sunnyvale-based Analatom received $200,000, and AlphaStar, of Long Beach received $200,383.

Contact Tracy Seipel at 408-920-5343.
International rankings of wind power total capacity, end of 2008, in megawatts:
U.S. "” 25,369 MW
Germany "” 23,933
Spain "” 16,453
China "” 12,121
India "” 9,655
Italy "” 3,731
France "” 3,671
U.K. "” 3,263
Denmark "” 3,159
Portugal "” 2,829
Rest of world "” 18,106
TOTAL "” 122,290
Source: DOE

Wind And Solar Power News

Offshore wind tipped to grow its share

Frost & Sullivan expects offshore wind to become a more substantial contributor of electricity generated from wind by 2020. As per its estimates, installed capacity of offshore wind is expected to grow from 1,276 MW in 2008 to 18,769 MW by 2015.

With increase in the number of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) from 1.5 ROCs/Wh to 2 ROCs/MWh outlined in the budget in April, the UK government has given a huge boost to the offshore wind energy industry. (The Budget proposes to review the support given to the offshore wind from Renewables Obligation Certificates by £525m. Electricity supply companies currently receive 1.5 ROCs for every megawatt hour (MWh) of energy they buy from offshore wind farms, which they can then sell on. As per the plans, this will rise to 2 ROCs for the financial year 2009-2010, and fall back to 1.75 ROCS in 2010-11).

Frost & Sullivan’s Industry Analyst Gouri Kumar believes that “after a string of bad news in the industry, this is a significant change that will provide a stimulus to investors in the UK as well as in the rest of Europe.”

The investment costs for offshore wind energy projects are almost double that of onshore projects, said Kumar. They have also risen substantially over the past two-three years due to increase in raw material costs and demand-supply situation for turbines and some components. The economic crisis is expected to slow the progress of projects for the next few years, but the decision to go ahead with the London Array project shows that governments are doing everything in their power to make sure the policies in place will spur the industry on, added Kumar.

An important way of cutting costs is to invest into R&D of technology, installation and O&M.