WIND MARCHES ON, BUT TO WHERE?

Wind Hits 50 Gigawatts in the US; Harry Reid (D-NV), Department of the Interior, AWAEA tout wind capacity milestone, renewables advances at Clean Energy Summit

Herman K. Trabish, August 8, 2012 Greentech Media)

“…U.S. wind’s installed capacity [has] reached 50,000 megawatts…[representing] the generating power of 44 coal plants or eleven nuclear plants…Fifty megawatts of wind can power almost 13 million American homes, conserve an estimated 30 billion gallons of water compared to thermal generation, and avoid as much carbon dioxide as taking 14 million cars off the road…

“…Nevada’s first wind installation on public land, Pattern Energy’s 151.8 megawatt Spring Valley Wind Project…was one of the 2012 installations that took the U.S. wind industry past the 50 gigawatt milepost…[Others were] Enel Green Power North America’s 148.8-megawatt Rocky Ridge project in Oklahoma, Utah Associated Municipal Power’s 57.6-megawatt Horse Butte project in Idaho and First Wind’s Kaheawa Wind II project in Hawaii…[65 percent of the Spring Valley project’s turbines were] domestically manufactured…”

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“…[The wind industy] built 5,000 megawatts in its first twenty-three years but leapt in capacity to ten gigawatts when its production tax credit (PTC), which expires at the end of 2012, was kept in place from 2003 to 2006. Wind then grew to 25 gigawatts by 2008 and doubled in the last four years…But with the failure of Congress to extend the PTC into 2013…layoffs have begun and wind supply chain facilities are shifting to serve other industries.

“Because of the twelve-month to eighteen-month lead time for the building of a wind project, industry watchers and analysts expect the coming year to see a plunge in installations even if, as [insiders predict], the Senate finally extends the PTC before the end of this year…”

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