Public Power - January/February 2009 - (Page 30)

■ Grand Ambitions for Wind Power technically innovative, highly experienced, well capitalized by BP, and have set up a manufacturing facility in Iowa. They are coming on strong.” DeMeo also pointed out that the basic patent on the variable-speed wind turbine, which passed from Kenetech to Zond to Enron to GE, and which has enabled important improvements in turbine efficiency and reliability, will expire in 2009, dispersing its benefits to the entire domestic industry. The variable-speed turbine allows the rotor to speed up when the wind blows stronger, reducing mechanical stress during wind gusts. The wind power development business in the United States—as distinct from the manufacturing of wind turbines—is also evolving toward international enterprise, but often with utility ties. The result is that FPL Energy is the largest owner of wind power projects in the United States, but Iberdrola of Spain is second, and Energias de Portugal is third. Only Babcock & Brown, which is in fourth place, has no utility affiliation. DOE recognized the growing international character of the wind business in its report. “Particularly striking in recent years has been the entrance of large European energy companies into the U.S. market. The two largest developer acquisitions in 2007, for example, were the purchase of Horizon Wind by Energias de Portugal, and the acquisition of Airtricity North America by E.ON AG from Germany, summing to nearly $4 billion.” The next link in the supply chain is the “wind farm,” typically made up of 50 to 150 machines strategically dispersed over the landscape to capture the maximum potential from the site.“It’s a science siting these wind turbines,” said Jennifer Tripp. “You can be 200 yards away and one turbine may produce significantly different amounts of power than the next.” These wind farms are growing to plantation scale. According to the DOE, the average size of today’s installation is 120 MW, nearly double what it was three years ago. The two largest remain in West Texas: Horse Hollow with a capacity of 736 MW, followed by Sweetwater at 585 MW. Yet sites under development will dwarf these. The largest will be the one T. Boone Pickens has planned for West Texas, which in aggre30 January-February 2009 The next link in the supply chain is the “wind farm,” typically made up of 50 to 150 machines strategically dispersed over the landscape to capture the maximum potential from the site. gate will amount to 4,000 MW. It will be built in four stages of 1,000 MW each. Pickens already has a commitment for 667 turbines, and his proposal includes transmission to deliver the goods to market. Texas, driven by state renewable mandates and benefiting from a single-state regulatory structure, remains the clear leader in the U.S. wind enterprise with more than 4,400 MW of aggregate installed capacity at the end of 2007. The Picken’s project would nearly double that level. California is in second place with over 2,400 MW, followed by Minnesota, Iowa and Washington, with 1,200 to 1,300 MW each. The next large frontier may be offshore. The wind resources are superb along both the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, and they are uniquely close to the major load centers. Europe has already moved offshore into waters typically shallower than those bordering the United States. “No wind projects have been built off the U.S. shores yet, but it’s just a matter of time,” said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association. Delmarva Power has signed a contract with a subsidiary of Babcock & Brown for 200 MW of wind, located in a swath of water nearly 12 miles offshore of Rehoboth Beach, Del. At this distance, much of the objection faced by developers off the coast of Massachusetts should disappear since the turbines would be nearly invisible to the naked eye. The “technology will be fundamentally the same, but the turbines tend to be larger,” Becker said. “The downside is a more hostile environment offshore, and the difficulties in maintenance by boat.” The last link in the supply chain, getting the power to market, may well be the most difficult for wind. The resource is capricious. Wind does not blow on demand, nor can it be dispatched in the traditional sense. Typically wind blows hardest when weather conditions are cool and overcast; thus, the great open plains of West Texas are typically becalmed during the hottest periods of summer when the air conditioning load in the urban centers is the greatest. The inherent nature of the wind resource presents three overriding challenges: intermittency/variability, low-capacity factors (relative to fossil fuels) running between 30 to 40 percent, and remoteness from load centers. “As a result, a central problem is building the delivery infrastructure to handle the wind resource. Most areas of the country are still struggling with how to get that done,” said Tripp. She pointed out that Texas has made the most concerted efforts to date to deal with the issue of transmission bottlenecks. West Texas has some 9,000 MW of wind under development, yet the existing transmission system can only handle under 5,000 MW of throughput, leaving thousands of megawatts of wind power unable to get to the major load centers in Houston and Dallas. ERCOT can no longer incrementally expand its transmission capacity, she said. “Transmission constraints are now curtailing the wind and they know they have been working for a couple years on the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone process to plan and construct a massive high-voltage infrastructure to deliver a planned level of about 18,000 MW of renewable resources to the ERCOT system.” Texas not only benefits from extensive wind resources but from a singular coherence in their regulatory structure. ERCOT is a self-contained “island” and not subject to the hurdles of interstate regulation. As a result, the state can move with speed and authority. “Texas has mandated the growing use of renewable energy and will back up the Public Power

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - January/February 2009

Public Power - December 2008 Contents Perspective 10 Questions Heat or Eat? Achieving Excellence in Nuclear Operations Training Grand Ambitions for Wind Power Visions of Green Carbon Trading Across The Pond Reliability Green Energy Customer Service DEED Hometown Connections Parting Shot

Public Power - January/February 2009

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