[Graeme]

2,000 GW Of Wind Power Projected For 2030

Today’s graph of the day comes from the Global Wind Energy Outlook released on Tuesday in Beijing by the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace International. It shows that wind power could reach 2,000 GW by 2030, and supply up to 17-19 per cent of global electricity by that time. By 2050, wind power could provide 25-30% of global electricity supply.

“Wind power has become the least cost option when adding new capacity to the grid in an increasing number of markets, and prices continue to fall”, said the Steve Sawyer, CEO of GWEC. “Given the urgency to cut down CO2 emissions and continued reliance on imported fossil fuels, wind power’s pivotal role in the world’s future energy supply is assured.”

Wind energy installations totalled 318 GW globally by the end of 2013, and the industry is set to grow by another 45 GW in 2014.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Wind is the World's Cheapest Source of Energy According to EU Report

A report prepared for the European Commission has found that onshore wind power provides the cheapest source of energy once external factors such as air quality, health impacts and expenditure, and the costs of climate change are taken into consideration. The report’s authors found that onshore wind costs around $133 per MW/h to produce, whereas gas and coal cost up to $208 and $295 per MW/h each. However, continuing a controversy that shadowed the Commission last year, extracts from the report have already been published that fail to include the external costs, which is where many of the subsidies to coal, gas and nuclear are made.

inhabitat

Wind Power Is Cheaper, More Reliable, Than Natural Gas

As Australia’s dance of the seven RET Reviews continues, it seems like a good time to revisit one of the more persistent anti-renewables myths bandied about by fossil fuel types (and most of the Abbott government): that that renewable energy is unreliable in meeting electricity demand.

As UNSW associate professor Mark Diesendorf wrote for The Conversation one-and-a-half years ago, this old myth – long since busted by a UNSW research team, among others – “is based on the incorrect assumption that baseload demand can only be supplied by baseload power stations.”

And the fact that this is simply no longer the case was reiterated at last week’s All Energy Australia conference by Garth Heron, GM Australia for Windlab Limited.

“The argument that we need this baseload power ticking over in the background is basically false,” Heron told RenewEconomy after the conference.

“We don’t have a constant demand, so this idea that we need a constant supply is a myth.”

And as for the suggestion that wind energy is too unreliable to make any kind of meaningful contribution to the National Electricity Market, that’s a myth too, says Heron.

“There are pros and cons with all types of generation; wind and solar are reliant on renewable resources, while gas and coal are reliant on fuel supply,” he said.

cleantechnica

[dohboi]

Wind Energy Could Stabilize the Grid

While the study’s results are counterintuitive at first glance, they make sense when you consider the inertia associated with a spinning windmill over 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter in the context of our merry-go-round analogy. While wind turbines might not have electrical energy storage (e.g. batteries), all wind turbines have a significant amount of passive mechanical energy storage in the inertia of their spinning blades. GE and NREL’s study shows that with the right mechanical controls, this inertia can be harnessed to keep the grid’s frequency under control—even in a high wind penetration scenario—disrupting the notion that wind energy will destabilize the grid.
...
GE and NREL’s study shows that the entire eastern U.S. grid could achieve a dramatic increase in wind penetration without suffering any major destabilizing effects, without threatening electric reliability, and without installing any costly energy storage. For now, at least, wind energy’s intermittent nature should not be held up as a barrier to its development.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plu ... -the-grid/

"While wind turbines might not have electrical energy storage"

But aren't they starting to build turbines with batteries in them now, too? So this should be less and less of an issue going forward.

[Graeme]

India’s Wind Energy Capacity To Double In Five Years: GWEC

Through the effective implementation of existing policies India’s wind energy capacity could double over the next five years, latest estimates of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) show.

The recent re-introduction of a crucial tax incentive for wind energy project developers in addition to a generation-based financial incentive will help India push its installed wind energy to almost 50 GW by the end of this decade, Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has reported. By the end of next year the capacity is expected to reach 25 GW.

cleantechnica

[dashster]

Why has US Wind Energy growth stalled the last few years? I found this bar chart at the American Wind Energy Association website:



Edit: I suppose it is tax related:

[ROCKMAN]

Compare this chart http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images ... chart2.png to yours and you’ll see that the national increase from 2005 to 2010 was 31,300 MW. During that time Texas increased 8,100 MW. IOW Texas alone accounted for 26% of the national increase. And you’ll notice very little change in Texas from 2012 to 2013 so that represents a big part of the national trend. I’m not sure if that represent a change in any of the incentives. Perhaps just a natural lull. Supposedly we have a significant amount of new capacity under construction which will come on line in the next couple of years.

[TemplarMyst]

Ran across A Tricky Transition From Fossil Fuel on the NYT.

Pretty good summary of some of the issues raised here and which have bothered me for some time, namely, how do renewables become "sustainable" from an economic point of view when they produce nearly zero profit when they are producing all out:

“We are really worried about this situation,” Anders Stouge, the deputy director general of the Danish Energy Association, said in an interview. “If we don’t do something, we will in the future face higher and higher risks of blackouts.”

The suggested solutions are a redesign of the electricity markets, including but not limited to the idea of real-time pricing. As the smart grid and devices expand they could turn up and down automatically, but that seems a formula that might not be all that great:

But the political risks of the situation also ought to be obvious to the greens. The minute any European country — or an ambitious American state, like California — has a blackout attributable to the push for renewables, public support for the transition could weaken drastically.

Then there's the issue of just how tiny Denmark is. I'm still not seeing how this scales up. I guess we'll see, eh?

[KaiserJeep]

The reduced rate of wind power capacity increase is simple. There are a limited number of sites that meet the two major wind power requirements, and those sites have pretty much been built already. Those requirements are proximity to high capacity grid power lines and ideal locations in mountain passes that funnel winds and achieve higher than the average duration of winds in the flatlands.

The smart money in wind power got in early when the ideal wind power sites were building, and thus maximized the return on their money. Developing wind farms on less ideal sites requires more investment for the construction of grid transmission lines, which in turn requires a certain wholesale price for grid-supplied power. That price has been depressed by the recent decline in natural gas due to fracking. Low natural gas prices are depressing not only new wind farms, but new hydropower development, new nuclear plants, and in fact every form of generation except natural gas.

[ROCKMAN]

"The minute any...an ambitious American state...has a blackout attributable to the push for renewables, public support for the transition could weaken drastically." OTOH in Texas last March much of the grid would have suffered black outs during an especially nasty cold snap had wind power not filled the gap left by fossil fuel plants unable to satisfy demand. You can imagine how much PR the wind folks put out into the public over that situation: wind saved fossil fuel's ass! LOL.

KP - As far as space for more turbines we don't have any problems here in Texas: "West Texas alone has more than 2,000 wind turbines, and the number continues to increase as development costs fall and wind turbine technology improves — more than $1 billion in new investment is pending for 2013 construction."

The big road block could be the grid. But it won't: "A $7 billion grid expansion is taking place across West Texas. The expansion is part of the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone initiative to connect wind energy in rural areas to Texas metro areas and is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. About 30 percent of the grid expansion, when completed, will be used immediately “because we got power that’s backed up in West Texas, so we can get (it) to market,” said Jeff Clark, executive director of The Wind Coalition. “What I want to see grow is that 9.2 percent (of total energy used in the ERCOT region last year): I want to see Texas grow, be more independent, make its own electricity.”

[Graeme]

Wind Energy Primary Source of New U.S. Generating Capacity in October

With the latest release of the Energy Infrastructure Update report by the Federal Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects, wind energy emerged the leader in new U.S. electrical generating capacity for October.

Five new wind farms in Colorado, Kansas. Michigan, Nebraska and Texas came online last month, bringing 574 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity, or 68.41 percent of the total. In addition to the new wind capacity, seven “units” of biomass provided 102 MW of new capacity, or 12.16 percent of the total, and five units of solar contributed 31 MW for 3.69 percent of October’s new generation. The rest, 132 MW, came from three units of natural gas at 15.73 percent.

October marks the eighth time this year the renewable sources of energy, including biomass, hydropower, solar, wind and geothermal, has produced the majority of new electrical generation brought into service in the United States. The other two months, April and August, the main source was natural gas.

Since January 1st 2014 9,903 MW of new generating capacity has come online from all sources. 2,189 MW from 34 units of wind energy account for 22.10 percent of that total, followed by 1.801 MW of solar at 18.19 percent; 45 units of biomass at 241 MW for 2.43 percent; 141 MW from 7 units of hydropower for 1.42 percent and finally 32 MW from 5 units geothermal provided 0.32 percent of new capacity through October.

In all, renewable energy sources have contributed 44.47 percent of new generating capacity in the U.S. thus far in 2014. Most of the rest of new capacity came from natural gas, with 45 units, or 5,373 MW comprising 54,26 percent of the total. Less than 1 percent each of new capacity came from 1 unit of nuclear (71 MW), 15 units if oil (47 MW) and 6 units of “other” (7 MW). No new generating capacity from coal has been added in 2014. Renewable sources have provided 37 times the new capacity this year than from coal, oil and nuclear combined.

theenergycollective

Siemens’ Wind Farm Life Cycle Assessments

German wind energy company Siemens has published detailed performance data covering CO2 savings and payback times for both geared and direct drive wind turbines in offshore and onshore projects.

The four new Environmental Product Declaration brochures are based on Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of four defined Siemens wind power projects: two offshore wind plants with 80 wind turbines, and two onshore wind projects with 20 wind turbines.

According to the company, LCAs are a cradle-to-grave tool for calculating the energy payback time of a power generation system – the amount of time a plant must operate to produce as much energy as it consumes. They also provide data on the environmental savings of large-scale wind power systems over their lifetime.

“Environmental product declarations provide customers, developers and authorities the requested transparency on the environmental performance of our products and they help us to further develop our portfolio, thereby ensuring competitiveness,” said Siemens Wind Power and Renewables chief executive Markus Tacke.

An onshore wind farm featuring 20 Siemens SWT-3.2-113 wind turbines shows an energy payback time of 4.5 months. During its entire life-cycle it will produce 57 times more energy than it consumes and just four grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt/hour (g/kWh) of electricity generated, compared to 865 g/kWh for a fossil fuel powered plant. This return includes all manufacturing, installation, operations, maintenance and dismantling of the wind farm over an estimated 25-year life cycle.

energymatters

[Graeme]

As Coal Crashes, US Governors Push Wind Energy

Forget the annual war on Christmas, things are really cooking up over the war on wind energy. The fight over wind energy has become something of a new American holiday ritual around this time of year, and now the stakes are higher than ever.

In the latest twist, a coalition of US Governors has waded into the fray with a letter to House leadership, citing a drop — yes, a drop — in electricity prices over the past five years, in states that have been producing more wind energy.

For those of you new to the topic, the big wind energy blowup is all over a tax break called the production tax credit (PTC) for wind energy.

As a matter of sound public policy, namely, for economic development and national defense, Congress routinely exercises its ability to support domestic energy production through various subsidies, including tax breaks. For generations, that kind of nanny-state coddling was pretty much exclusively directed at fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

In 1992, Congress passed the first PTC for wind energy as a temporary kickstart to help get the nascent industry on a level footing with other energy sectors. The credit was routinely extended, along with virtually every other energy subsidy, with support from red and blue lawmakers alike.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Wind In Scotland Generates 107% Of Household Needs In November

Figures from WeatherEnergy released by WWF Scotland have shown yet another record-breaking month for the country’s renewable energy industry, with wind turbines alone generating 107% of all Scottish household needs for the whole month!

Scotland’s wind energy industry generated 812 MWh of electricity in November, enough to meet 107% of all Scottish household needs for November — the equivalent of 2.6 million homes.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Upgrading Transmission Lines Would Unlock The Saudi Arabia Of Wind

Wind is widely considered the most environmentally friendly source of electrical generation available. It is no secret that the wind resource in the Great Plains states is extraordinary, so much so that wind energy professionals have dubbed this region the “Saudi Arabia” of wind. The wind blows strong and steady. On an energy basis, Texas alone could provide all of the electricity needs of the entire country (Table 1). But the largest loads, seen here and here are concentrated on the East Coast, far from the Great Plains states. There is relatively little transmission line access to the best wind resources in the country. Bringing transmission access out to these massive sources would dramatically increase the availability of low cost, high quality, wind power for loads on the East Coast. While not comprehensive, this post provides an easy to understand overview of the geography of wind and transmission in the US exposing the opportunity and inviting the discussion of how to unlock this extraordinary resource.

cleantechnica

[Timo]

Looking at that map of winds across the US, something up in the Great Lakes regions sure does suck!

Sorry. It had to be done.

[Graeme]

Micro Wind Turbines: Another Big Headache For Big Oil

Oil companies in the US have been retrenching as the market goes into free-fall, but when the dust settles and prices begin their inevitable upward climb the survivors will face some stiff — and unprecedented — competition. Among other factors, the US wind industry is on the verge of breaking through into new territory. Utility scale offshore wind energy is the obvious place to watch, but we’re also interested in the role that micro wind turbines could play.

To clarify, we’re thinking that as a standalone source micro wind probably wouldn’t cut it. The idea is to look at micro wind turbines in the context of a national distributed wind energy strategy.

Micro Wind Turbines And Distributed Wind Energy

For those of you new to the topic, the Energy Department’s Wind Program defines distributed wind in terms of application. If a turbine is located fairly close to the point of use, and is either off-grid or connected directly to a local distribution grid, then it fits the distributed wind energy mold.

Although distributed wind energy strategies could include anything from 5 kilowatts on up to utility scale turbines, the Energy Department is focusing its grant dollars for distributed wind on the small/micro wind turbine sector.

In contrast to utility scale wind farms, which take up a lot of space and typically require long transmission lines, distributed wind turbines can be scaled down to individual markets including agricultural operations, industry, commercial facilities, academic institutions, and a lot more. All else being equal in terms of site selection, the possibilities are practically limitless for micro wind application.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

MEDOW Looks To Develop A European Wind ‘Super Grid’

A group of EU-funded researchers are investigating the development of a pan-European “super grid” specifically designed to transfer wind-generated electricity across EU Member States.

According to the European Commission, such a project would “bring more renewable energy into homes and businesses, help reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and enable Europe to move closer towards achieving energy independence.”

The project, Multi-terminal DC grid for offshore wind, or MEDOW, is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network consisting of 5 universities and 6 industrial organisations, with collective experience covering manufacturing, design, operation, and control of multi-terminal DC grids.

MEDOW intends to develop the idea of a DC grid for transmitting and sharing wind power, rather than single point-to-point connections, which they believe will “reinforce reliability and help balance power supply and demand.”

The concept stems from the need to better transfer power from offshore wind farms, an increasingly frequent location for wind power which needs a more efficient method of electricity transfer. The project, which began in 2013 and will run through to 2017, is investigating the newly emerging technology of a DC grid, studying operational issues such as DC power flow, DC relaying protection, and dynamic stability.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

When Wind Energy Continued As The Big News Story Of 2014

Ever since I started writing for CleanTechnica I have been irrepressibly fascinating with wind energy. I believe it to be the most likely and legitimate of clean energy technologies to take us into a coal-free future — and many of the statistics and news stories that follow back me up. Unlike my roundup of global clean energy investments, 2014 was merely a continuation of wind energy’s popularity, lacking some of the big blockbuster news items that shaped the investment sector. Nevertheless, I’d like to take a moment to look back through the year that was, and see just how well wind energy did this year.

Wind Energy Projects in Development

Throughout the year, wind energy projects continued to pop up all over the planet — from European powerhouses to emerging economies.

January saw the Scottish Government grant consent for the Bhlaraidh Wind Farm, a 180 MW wind farm to be located on the western shore of Loch Ness in the north-west of Invermoriston, Scotland. According to Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing, “the Bhlaraidh wind farm will create jobs both in its construction and during its lifetime, and once up and running will save thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. With this wind farm we will now be able to produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 50,900 homes.”

Scotland also saw the announcement of what will become the world’s third largest offshore wind farm, to be developed in the outer Moray Firth, and combine up to 326 wind turbines in a 1,866 MW wind farm.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

A Bipartisan Group Of Senators Is Pushing For Distributed Wind: Here's Why It Matters

A group of Senators recently urged the US Department of Energy to continue funding programs for the domestic distributed wind energy industry. The bipartisan group, led by Sen. Al Franken, wrote a letter highlighting the clear potential for distributed wind power to “contribute many gigawatts of electricity similar to other renewable technologies.” Reactions have been mixed, and that’s understandable. The distributed wind industry has faced a good deal of critique (some of which is warranted). Nevertheless, the Senators are correct: Distributed wind is a useful technology, with useful applications, and stands to benefit from the increasingly attractive economic conditions for distributed generation.


The future of small wind: Worth investing in

Economic conditions are increasingly attractive for all distributed generation. In just a few short years, distributed wind has changed dramatically. There are fewer players, and the standards are much tougher as the SWCC, in the US, and comparable certification programs around the world, have reached maturation. The technology has advanced — and has a wide variety of applications. You’re not going to find distributed wind atop 20% of rooftops, like you will already with solar in Australia, but you will find that the modern technologies from the companies that remain in the industry — the strongest, best run ones with the best technology, and with better economies of scale — will start gaining a resurgence.

Distributed wind has particularly great potential in applications such as:

Farms: A 10kW or larger turbine can be installed in windy locations and produce energy at a rate less than that available from the grid, or in farms in remote regions with difficulty accessing the grid.

Northern and Southern regions, from Scandinavia to Patagonia: There are limitations to solar resources during the winter months at the poles, but wind is a great resource in most of these areas.

Hybrid installations: Particularly in off-grid situations, a mix of energy sources adds resiliency and lowers the cost of energy.

theenergycollective

[Graeme]

U.K. And Germany Smash Wind Power Records

The United Kingdom blew past previous wind power records in 2014 while Germany generated a record amount of electricity from wind in December, setting the stage for 2015 to bring more industry growth across Europe. Exactly how quickly it grows, however, is contingent upon several political and regulatory decisions to come.

Using statistics from the U.K.’s National Grid, the trade association RenewableUK found that wind generated enough electricity to power just over 25 percent of U.K. homes in 2014 — a 15 percent increase from 2013. Wind turbines provided 9.3 percent of the U.K’s total electricity supply last year, a 1.5 percent boost from 2013.

“It’s great to start 2015 with some good news about the massive quantities of clean electricity we’re now generating from wind,” said RenewableUK’s Deputy Chief Executive Maf Smith.

In December, Germany generated more wind power, 8.9 terawatt-hours, than in any previous month. According to the IWR renewable energy research institute, this record will be overtaken in 2015 as more offshore wind farms come online.

After strong wind power months in October and November, Scotland also set a monthly generation record in December. WWF Scotland stated that wind power generated enough power to supply electricity to 98 percent of Scotland’s households in 2014.

thinkprogress

[Graeme]

Germany & Denmark Join Britain In Smashing Wind Energy Records

The UK smashed wind energy records in 2014, according to figures provided earlier this week, but it wasn’t the only one — Denmark and Germany also released wind energy production figures, with both countries setting impressive new records of their own.

According to the IWR renewable-energy research institute (by way of Bloomberg, who translated the available information from Germany better than I can convince myself I can), Germany produced 8.9 TWh of wind energy in December. That’s a record for Germany, but in an email, IWR predicted that those numbers will tumble in 2015, as a number of offshore wind projects are set to be brought online.

Denmark, on the other hand, had an astonishing year overall, with wind generating 39.1% of all its electricity needs for 2014, a figure which has more than doubled since 2004, when wind accounted for 18.8%.

“We will definitely hit our 2020 goals, said Climate Minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen, speaking to broadcaster DR (by way of The Local dk). “We have set a one-of-a-kind world record. And it shows that we can reach our ultimate goal, namely to stop global warming,”

cleantechnica