HOUSE CMTE FUNDS $200 MIL WIND STUDY ACT

Panel OKs $200M for wind energy
Trish Choate, August 2, 2009 (San Angelo Standard-Times)

"An initiative to drive the booming West Texas wind industry moved forward in Congress recently when a committee approved a bill to spend $200 million annually on wind-energy research.

"The House Science and Technology Committee passed the Wind Energy Research and Development Act of 2009 to establish a research and development program to cut construction, generation and maintenance costs."

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"…West Texas [Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-Lubbock)] supported the bill and added an amendment that could bring a demonstration wind farm to the Lone Star state…[West Texas has become home to several wind farms]…

"…[Professor] Andrew Swift [director of the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock] testified in mid-July on Capitol Hill about the importance of studying how the wind flows through wind farms…Neugebauer’s amendment also specifies the program fund research to study the wake effect between upwind and downwind turbines — something emphasized by Swift…[and] requires a wind demonstration program to be in varied locations to capture different wind regimes…"

Now to be thoroughly studied. (click to enlarge)

"The committee approved the bill [July 29]. Authored by Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., the legislation would provide $200 million per year for wind-energy related research through 2014…

"If the bill gains final approval from Congress, it will foster technological advances that could help the Department of Energy reach its goal of 20 percent of the nation’s electricity coming from wind energy by 2030…The Department of Energy estimated that reaching the 20 percent goal would create 180,000 wind-industry jobs…"