EnergyBiz - January/February 2008 - (Page 24) “This isn’t an impossible vision,” said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association. “The Danes really look at wind as a critical technology for the future.” The Danish rush to wind is not unique, at least for Europe. Germany and Spain are noted for wind turbine deployments. One of the world’s largest wind turbines, a 5-megawatt unit, now spins near Hamburg. As for seeding the European coast with wind generation, some wind backers are calling for up to 40,000 megawatts of offshore wind generation by 2020, which would satisfy 4 percent of the continent’s electricity needs. American officials are taking note. In an interview with EnergyBiz to discuss the implications of Denmark’s wind program, Joseph T. Kelliher, chairman of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said wind is ready to assume a much greater role in American power planning. Too many of us, when we envision wind power “picture a lonely windmill from the Wizard of Oz,” Kelliher said. “Really, it is a major program with 150-foot blades and thousands of megawatts of potential.” The Denmark challenge, many Danes suggest, is whether the United States can replicate, perhaps more modestly, what is being attempted in Denmark. Kelliher said it would require strong regional power grids. Today, there are more than 500 transmission owners, “500 sets of hands pulling the levers for those 500 machines,” he said. We see urban wind as a new niche. Coordinating an array of relatively small generators spread over a vast expanse for the benefit of far off urban centers will require complex coordination, something made difficult by today’s balkanized grid. Furthermore, while annual investment in transmission has doubled since 2002, Kelliher said, it is “still not adequate.” Swisher said that an investment of $60 billion in 19,000 miles of 765-kilovolt transmission lines would spur development of massive arrays of wind generation in the United States. “The U.S. wind industry is focused on 20 percent wind penetration by 2030,” Swisher said. Accomplishing that would represent a revolution in the industry. It would take 320,000 megawatts of new wind generation to get to that 20 percent objective, he said. “The potential for wind technology is almost unlimited. The resource isn’t the limitation. The economics are in the competitive range. It is a question of constructing an electric system that can use that amount of wind.” How have the Danes addressed concerns Americans have about wind power? Consider the esthetic question. Some prominent clam chowder state denizens have fought placement of a proposed offshore wind farm in Cape Cod waters saying it would ruin the view. That attitude mystifies Beate Bentzen, chief development officer with Changing Society goveRnment p olicy BolsteRs winD geneR Ation By mARtin RosenBeRg michel schilling, l aW y er, slight of frame, 42, father of four, plays a key role in the Danish government when it comes to implementing a grand vision for bolstering the northern European nation’s wind generation resources. As point man in the Danish Energy Authority, he is a central figure in implementing an ambitious national plan unveiled by political leaders a year ago. It calls for a doubling of wind power capacity in the country to 6,000 megawatts by 2025, aided by installation of upward of 1,000 offshore wind turbines around a nation roughly the size of West Virginia. That would represent an astounding 50 percent of the country’s electricity demand. EnergyBiz recently sat down with Schilling outside a European wind energy conference in Roskilde, near a rugged fjord, to discuss where Denmark is with wind power today, and where it hopes to take the technology. His comments, edited for style and length, follow. Describe Denmark’s energy success story. We have had economic growth every year for almost 25 years. It’s one of the only countries in the world where you have decoupled completely economic growth from the energy consumption. EnErgyBiz schiLLing EnErgyBiz schiLLing How do you do that? Energy savings and energy savings (CONTINuEd ON PAGE 26 ) Michel Schilling phOTO By MarTin rOsEnBErg 24 E n E rgyB i z January/February 2008
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