Energy+News

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WIND ENERGY GROWS BY RECORD 8,300 MW IN 2008 **//Smart policies, stimulus bill needed to maintain momentum in 2009//** The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all previous records in 2008 by installing 8,358 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity (enough to serve over 2 million homes), the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today, even as it warned of an uncertain outlook for 2009 due to the continuing financial crisis. The massive growth in 2008 swelled the nation’s total wind power generating capacity by 50% and channeled an investment of some $17 billion into the economy, positioning wind power as one of the leading sources of new power generation in the country today along with natural gas, AWEA added. At year’s end, however, financing for new projects and orders for turbine components slowed to a trickle and layoffs began to hit the wind turbine manufacturing sector. “Our numbers are both exciting and sobering,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “The U.S. wind energy industry’s performance in 2008 confirms that wind is an economic and job creation dynamo, ready to deliver on the President’s call to double renewable energy production in three years. At the same time, it is clear that the economic and financial downturn have begun to take a serious toll on new wind development. We are already seeing layoffs in the area where wind’s promise is greatest for our economy: the wind power manufacturing sector. Quick action in the stimulus bill is vital to restore the industry’s momentum and create jobs as we help make our country more secure and leave a more stable climate for our children.” The new wind projects completed in 2008 account for about 42% of the entire new power-producing capacity added nationally last year, according to initial estimates, and will avoid nearly 44 million tons of carbon emissions, the equivalent of taking over 7 million cars off of the road. The amount that the industry brought online in the 4th quarter alone – 4,112 MW - exceeds annual additions for every year except 2007. In all, wind energy generating capacity in the U.S. now stands at 25,170 MW, producing enough electricity to power the equivalent of close to 7 million households and strengthening our national energy supply with a clean, inexhaustible, homegrown source of energy. Iowa, with 2,790 MW installed, surpassed California (2,517 MW) in wind power generating capacity. The top five states in terms of capacity installed are now:

-Texas, with 7,116 MW -Iowa, with 2,790 MW -California, with 2,517 MW -Minnesota, with 1,752 MW -Washington, with 1,375 MW

Oregon moved into the club of states with more than 1,000 MW installed, which now counts seven states: Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon. About 85,000 people are employed in the wind industry today, up from 50,000 a year ago, and hold jobs in areas as varied as turbine component manufacturing, construction and installation of wind turbines, wind turbine operations and maintenance, legal and marketing services, and more. About 8,000 of these jobs are construction jobs, and a significant number of those will be lost in 2009 if financing for the pipeline of new projects is not quickly restored. Wind power’s recent growth has also accelerated job creation in manufacturing, where the share of domestically manufactured wind turbine components has grown from under 30% in 2005 to about 50% in 2008. Wind turbine and turbine component manufacturers announced, added or expanded 70 new facilities in the past two years, including over 55 in 2008 alone. Those new manufacturing facilities created 13,000 new direct jobs in 2008. However, because of the recent slowdown in orders, wind turbine and turbine component manufacturers in different parts of the country are beginning to announce layoffs. “The hope is that provisions such as those included in the House stimulus bill to restore the effectiveness of the tax incentives for renewable energy will quickly become law and provide the capital needed to continue to build projects,” said Bode. “Because wind projects can be built quickly, positive legislation from Congress will have immediate and visible effects. Looking forward, it will also be important for the new Administration and Congress to put in place long-term, supportive renewable energy policies to make the new clean energy economy a reality.”



California's Senate Oks 1st Offshore Oil Lease; State Assembly Kills Bill
by Rigzone Staff Friday, July 24, 2009 California's senate voted on Friday to approve the first new offshore oil drilling lease since 1969. However, state officials underscored that California's policy on offshore drilling would not be changed and that the proposal would have been a one-time exemption to the state's otherwise long-term moratorium on new leases on the Outer Continental Shelf. Narrowly passing in the state senate by a 21-18 vote, the bill was one of 30 that the state government took into consideration as a means to boost revenues and help close the state's $26 billion deficit. The bill was unable to pass in the California State Assembly. Championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the bill would have allowed Plains Exploration & Production, a Houston-based independent oil and natural gas producer, to contribute revenues to the state garnered by its offshore Tranquillon Ridge Project, which accesses oil in state waters using slant drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara. The "T-Ridge Project" utilizes an existing platform and facilities already in operation. As part of an agreement with environmentalists who support the measure, the producer agreed to shut down four oil platforms and two onshore processing facilities in Santa Barbara by 2024 if the bill was carried out. Additionally, PXP would have provided $1.5 million to the county for low-carbon bus technology, as well as a donation of 4,000 acres of land for public use. The Tranquillon Ridge project is expected to garner an estimated $1.8 billion in royalties over the span of 15 years.
 * UPDATE** - [|California nixes project]; California's State Assembly fails to approve legistlation authorizing a path forward for PXP's T-Ridge Project, which would have been the first offshore oil lease approved since 1969.

Stanford Report, June 23, 2009

=High-altitude winds: The greatest source of concentrated energy on Earth= BY CHRISTINE BLACKMAN A Sky WindPower kite of turbines might capture wind energy with spinning rotors and send electricity to the ground through the wire that tethers it. At any moment, the winds in high-altitude jet streams hold roughly 100 times more energy than all the electricity being consumed on Earth, according to a study by Stanford environmental and climate scientists Cristina Archer and Ken Caldeira. To capture that energy, designers are dreaming up models of wind-turbine kites that fly so high, cruising airliners would have to steer around them. The tethered kites would float high enough for powerful jet streams to flow through their turbines more than 10 times faster than winds would flow near the ground. The spinning rotors of the kite turbines would convert the wind’s kinetic energy to electricity and send it back down the wire 30,000 feet to a distribution grid. Harnessing these high-flying currents could open up an effectively unlimited source of electricity, the researchers say. Kites may have the potential to be cost competitive, Caldeira said, and the study shows that the wind resource is huge and relatively reliable. The researchers reached this conclusion by analyzing 27 years of data from the National Center for Environmental Prediction and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. By studying the distribution of wind power in the atmosphere, by location and time, they found that winds at altitudes around 32,000 feet have the highest wind power density. “The wind power density tells you how much wind energy would flow through a wind turbine,” Caldeira said. The researchers used the data to compile the first global survey of high-altitude wind energy. Archer is an assistant professor at Stanford University and California State University-Chico and Caldeira is an associate professor at Stanford and a researcher at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Their findings were published in the journal Energies last month. High-altitude winds hold a huge energy potential waiting to be harnessed. “If you tapped into 1 percent of the power in high-altitude winds, that would be enough to continuously power all civilization,” Caldeira said. In comparison, similar solar cells would cover roughly 100 times more area than a high-altitude wind turbine, he said. Archer and Caldeira found the highest wind densities over Japan, eastern China, the eastern coast of the United States, southern Australia and northeastern Africa. Included in the analysis were assessments of wind energy above the world’s five largest cities: Tokyo, New York, São Paulo, Seoul and Mexico City. “New York … has the highest average high-altitude wind power density of any U.S. city,” Archer said. Tokyo and Seoul also have high wind power density because they are both affected by the East Asian jet stream. Mexico City and São Paulo are located at tropical latitudes, so they are rarely affected by the polar and sub-tropical jet streams. As a result they have lower wind power densities than the other three cities. In order to capture the energy in these jet streams, manufacturers are developing a variety of kite turbines that convert kinetic energy in wind to electricity. Manufacturer Sky WindPower designed a model consisting of a single tethered kite of four connected turbines, each with spinning rotors. The kite transfers the electricity back to a hub on the ground through its tether. Another model, being developed by Kite Gen, looks like a rotating carousel, based on the ground, with several kites tethered to it. Each kite’s flight pattern is controlled from the ground to capture the most wind, and as the kites circle in the air, they catch the wind and tug on their tethers. The tension triggers a pulley system that converts the energy of motion to electricity. Though sky-high currents offer huge potential, kite fliers face the challenge of a fluctuating wind. “While the winds at high altitude are much more consistent than the winds at the surface, they’re still not consistent enough,” Caldeira said. For example, if you flew a kite turbine in your backyard to power a house, at some times the wind would blow and at other times, it wouldn’t, he said. As a result, there would be gaps in the flow of electricity. Archer and Caldeira suggest a large-scale electrical grid to transfer excess energy to areas that have more demand than production. “Winds are always blowing somewhere, so if you had a large enough electrical transmission grid you could transmit the electricity from where it is blowing to where it isn’t blowing,” Caldeira said. Making batteries large enough to supplement the wind fluctuations seems improbable, and backup generators would be expensive, Caldeira explained. Another minor hurdle may be interference from airplanes. Manufacturers such as Sky WindPower and Kite Gen say that air traffic is not a huge problem. Kite users would simply need to obtain flight restrictions above their air space, just as nuclear power plants and refineries do. Sky WindPower also suggests that kites be flown in areas that are rural but not too far from the urban spots that the researchers identified as high-flow. Wind kites are not yet in use, but manufacturers predict that the cost of high-altitude wind power will range from 2 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour.