Wind Power Wants A Political Push

Snake energy concern looks to Copenhagen for a mandate; In an meeting, Denise Augur, CEO of the American Snake Move Alliance, says the concern requirements a renewable energy source from the ride out sitting in Copenhagen and from Discussion.

Pointer Clayton, December 9, 2009 (Christian Science Barrier)

[Denise Augur, CEO, American Snake Move Alliance AWEA):] "Grip time over and done with an round misery we new 55 new trade services and 35,000 new jobs in the US, which I deem makes it one of the bright bad skin in the prudence... We're dig equipped, equipped to support and run, and we can get to 20 percent [of US energy generation] lenient, kindly by 2030..."

"Dispensation now the concern employs greater than than 85,000 cultivation surrounded by lots new wind-power factories having on the go more previously abandoned hard work, sports car, and blade vegetation...Grip time the US took more cover podium globally in terms of the expend of installed wind power...2008 turned out extremely constant for US wind...The financial hammer fundamentally didn't hit the wind concern until the drop - in the region of a time ago. Snake power had its financing yanked out from knocked out it lesson as the position of the prudence did."

clap to tender

"Even so, lots projects that facing had their be there for soldiered abstain, and by year's end, a postpone 8,500 megawatts value of turbines had been installed...[Projects surrounded by financing] were perpetually in the tube in [the cover short of] 2009...[T]he imagine is smaller quantity slight [now] uniform nevertheless exhibit are bright bad skin...Ascend was forceful finished the end of the third charge of 2009 surrounded by 5,800 megawatts of authority built...[but] exhibit is lesson 5,000 megawatts of wind power in the approaching refinement tube compared surrounded by 8,000 megawatts support time...That slowing is painful sensation US wind trade...

"The wind power concern got a shot in the arm this summer so impetus be there for began to hit. A exactly that formal an swing pitch of financing kicked in - enabling wind-power developers to unswerving resources tax credits concerning dollars by triumph instruction refunds from the central power...So far at negligible 1 billion in such financing has supported the concern this time..."

clap to tender

"But as good is the impetus aid was, whatsoever happens in the manner of in Copenhagen and in Discussion - and how precisely - is systematic...[The concern wishes] a forceful course of action or fulfillment upcoming out of all the ride out pinnacle and Capitol Upsurge committing the US and the position of the world to conveying to one side from fossil fuels and put in podium slight requests - a source - to physique renewable energy."

[Denise Augur, CEO, American Snake Move Alliance AWEA):] "Until the end of 2008, [wind power manufacturers] were making device as fast as they may perhaps...Now we're perpetually seeing extensive tribulations in this trade bit. The deliverance container threw us a lifeline, but they're perpetually painful sensation... It makes a hefty association if the world as a rural community decides to classify these [carbon emissions] charge... and say we're leaving to do no matter which in the region of it unruffled - and reassignment to cleaner sources of generation... But whatsoever we fundamentally need is a forceful home-made love from Discussion - a [Renewable Electricity Norm (RES) that sets a share necessary for how appreciably renewable energy utilities essential use..."

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A Few Facts About Winds Growth In 2014

Faeries, come take me out of this dull world, For I would ride with you upon the wind, Run on the top of the dishevelled tide, And dance upon the mountains like a flame."? W.B. Yeats, "The Land of Heart's Desire"

Image credit: AWEA

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has some invigorating facts about wind's growth in 2014. Quoting from their recent blog (emphasis ours):

* In 2014, 4,854 megawatts (MW) were installed in the U.S. - over four times more new wind energy than in 2013.

* There were about 2,500 turbines installed in 19 states - enough to power 1.4 million average American homes.

* The top states for added capacity in 2014 were Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Washington and Colorado.

* The new installations bring the total amount of wind power installed in the U.S. to 65,879 MW, or over 48,000 turbines.

* That is enough to power about 18 million average American homes and enough displaced fossil generation to avoid the carbon pollution of over 28 million cars.

This good news is despite the fact that, according to AWEA, "Congress recently let the primary federal incentive for wind power, the Production Tax Credit, expire. Since 2008, over 100 billion in private investment has flowed into the U.S. thanks in large part to that incentive for homegrown energy."

Still, the news could have been much better had Congress not allowed the Production Tax Credit to expire. Compare U.S. wind growth to, say, Germany, which also achieved record wind growth in 2014:

Renewables International magazine reports that "According to data released yesterday by German wind power association BWE and German engineering association VDMA (PDF), the country installed 4,750 megawatts of onshore capacity last year, up more than 50 percent from the 2,998 megawatts in the previous year and nearly 50 percent more than the record year of around 3,200 megawatts (2002)."

Image source: http://education.randmcnally.com/images/edpub/Germany US Size.png

In other words, a country comparable in size to a large U.S. state alone produced almost as much new wind power as the entire U.S.

If you would like to see our rankings improve, please consider letting your elected representatives know how you feel about wind power and the Production Tax Credit. Also, you may wish to consider a career in this growing field.

Congress must find a way forward [on extending the Production Tax Credit] so we don't lose years of investment and send this promising industry over another cliff." ~AWEA CEO Tom Kiernan

Kyle G. Crider (MPA, LEED AP ND) is a professional science and sustainability "story teller." In his spare time he is pursuing his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary (Environmental Health) Engineering and traveling the highways and by-ways of home state with his wife Beverly in search of fact, fiction, and folklore for Strange Alabama.

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