U.S. wind takes off

The U.S. wind energy industry is continuing to pay off for those who have invested in it, both in terms of power generated as well as manufacturing and jobs. This is according to a pair of studies the DOE has made public.

More than 13 GW of wind energy capacity was added onto the U.S. grid last year. That's double what was added the year before. To boot, more of these wind turbines and their parts (towers, nacelles, blades, gearboxes, etc.) are being built in the U.S.

The DOE estimated that 72 percent of the wind turbine equipment used in the U.S. was  manufactured domestically — up from about 25 percent in 2007.

Crucially, the report also reveals that the American wind energy sector now employs some 80,000 people who work at all levels — from building wind turbine blades to installing nacelles or performing needed wind farm maintenance.

Other factoids from the report that I thought were worth noting:

• Texas added 1,300 MW of new wind capacity last year, beating out California, an early adopter of the technology and home to some of the nation's oldest wind farms
• The country's cumulative installed wind capacity has jumped 22-fold since the turn of the century
• There are three states that get more than 20 percent of their power from the winds: Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas
• The price of a kilowatt hour of wind energy ran about 4 cents from 2011 to 2012
• There are now 69,000 distributed wind turbines operating in all 50 states

Even though 2012 is the most recent year for which such detailed figures exist, some of this information has trickled out before I wrote this. But the reason I wanted to write about these reports  even though the information in them isn't that new is because I get the feeling that the new reality reflected here hasn't sunk in yet for many. I still hear people talking about how wind energy is a flash in the pan or an unrealistic dream, and at this point I don't know how that still gets repeated.

There was a time to wonder whether wind power could make it as a viable power generation technology. For the U.S., that time has passed. Now the question has become: What is the best way to integrate wind energy onto the power grid without causing too many disturbances due to intermittancy.

If you want to see how wind farms have spread across the U.S. over the years, the DOE has an interactive map at their website. Click here to see it.

Our changing generation mix

As an online editor, I handle stories every day of new wind farms going up or some local dignitaries pulling the switch for a new solar energy project. You read stories that use phrases like "dash for gas" or "war on coal," but absorbing stuff like this day by day has a way of numbing you to the big picture.

The big picture is that things are changing in a big way. I realized recently that the way I think about the generation mix in the U.S. is seriously out of date. I did a mental check. "OK, so natural gas is about 25 percent, nuclear is a steady 20 percent, coal is like half at least, right?"

Wrong.

New data from FERC shows the picture is changing drastically. Especially natural gas, coal and renewables. Wind and solar — which used to be relegated to a tiny sliver of the pie, or else an asterisk or an "other" — are contributing more than 5 percent of the total generation mix of the country.

Even more surprising perhaps is coal, which has fallen to less than 30 percent of the pie. What's replacing it, largely, is natural gas, which is now 42.37 percent of the mix.

Certainly I knew that coal-fired power plants were retiring. I hadn't missed those announcements. Indeed, sometimes it felt like the only coal stories I ever filed were those concerning coal power plants shutting down or switching to natural gas.

Nuclear, known for its reliability, is sticking at a steady 20 percent. However, given the potential of small modular reactors and the NRC granting new licenses, even just a few new projects going online could change that figure in the future.

Even unexpected generation technologies, like geothermal energy, seems to be showing some growth with more than 147 MW of new capacity being brought online last year — an increase of 5 percent from 2011.

I first started to notice this when FERC released a recap of the power generation that came online in 2012. Half of that new generation had been renewable energy. Some analysts I spoke to at the time considered this a fluke. They said there was no way that this could sustain itself. But FERC keeps reporting the data, and if anything the numbers look like this trend is speeding up. Coal is out, natural gas and renewables are in.

Things are changing in statistically significant ways. When you watch it every day, like energy experts tend to do, sometimes you can lose track of just how fast it's moving.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Will Wind Bring Oklahoma Out of the Recession?

The wind industry is hot. It’s popular---perhaps more popular than positively polled President Obama or the newly elected American Idol. It’s the buzz of both energy-related and mainstream media; it’s the source of great press about mandates, tax credits and other goodies that the government might bring to the table. It’s the subject of bestselling books and well-attended conferences.

One of those well-attended conferences occurred in the heat of the summer in the middle of the windy plains this week. According to planners, nearly 500 people gathered in Norman, Oklahoma for the Oklahoma Wind Commerce conference June 23-24. That’s way more than they expected.

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce sponsored the conference, having decided that wind is one of the industries that Oklahoma is built for. Given that the state is in the midst of tornado alley, the idea that the fuel for this industry is readily available locally is certainly a given. If the wind isn’t blowing, you aren’t in Oklahoma. (I always picture Will Rogers saying something along those lines, anyway.)

So, the conference focused on other areas that can sweeten the pot beyond an available fuel source: pushing for tax incentives, creating a smoothly operating supply chain and offering well-trained employees for the picking.

Opportunities abound in areas of education and fuel source for the wind industry in Oklahoma with a lot of the local colleges specializing in wind turbine programs, but will the industry answer that call for action? If they build the perfect “home” for wind energy, will they come?

One company that at least answered a call for the conference was Acciona Energy. Tom Hiester, vice president with the company, was the keynote speaker for the conference luncheon. Joking that the attendance for this conference was “larger than the first AWEA event,” Hiester had a simple premise for his speech: that wind is a huge business opportunity but that, like all opportunities, there are hurdles.

First and foremost with these hurdles is transmission.

“We need long-distance transmission. We need lots of it .... Wind is a fuel that must be used in place, unlike gas or coal,” Hiester noted. This requires transmission lines. The building of transmission lines requires money. The bottom-line question is: Can Oklahoma bring in enough wind to offset the cost of the lines?

Hiester believes so. He quoted a DOE estimate that the state had the potential to harvest 725 billion kWh from wind. Hiester even noted that, perhaps, the DOE numbers were too high and that, for sake of argument, he’d give those numbers “a haircut” and shave it down by a factor of four. That’s about 180billion kWh a year, or approximately 30 percent of the current oil and gas business in the state.

“At $2 million per megawatt, Oklahoma is a $100 billion opportunity,” Hiester added. “Clearly, wind is worth the fuss.”

In the end, Hiester called not just for more transmission, but for more government help in getting Oklahoma on track for more wind energy investments. Citing issues like Eisenhower’s interstate highway system (the largest public works project in history), Hiester noted that when big government and big thinkers unite, the country gets society-changing projects.