Earth Policy Institute 2001
6.01.01
WIND POWER: The Missing Link In the Bush Energy Plan
by LESTER BROWN
The eagerly awaited Bush energy plan released on May 17, 2001, disappointed
many people because it largely overlooked the potential contribution of
raising energy efficiency. It also overlooked the enormous potential of wind
power, which is likely to add more to U.S. generating capacity over the next
20 years than coal.
In short, the authors of the plan appear to be out of touch with what is
happening in the world energy economy, fashioning an energy plan more
appropriate for the early twentieth century rather than the early
twenty-first century. They emphasized the role of coal, but world coal use
peaked in 1996 and has declined some 11 percent since then as countries have
turned away from this climate-disrupting fuel. Even China, which rivals the
United States as a coal burning country, has reduced its coal use by 24
percent since 1996.
Meanwhile, world wind power use has multiplied nearly fourfold over the last
five years, a growth rate matched only by the computer industry. In the
United States, the American Wind Energy Association projects a staggering 60
percent growth in wind-generating capacity this year.
Wind power was once confined to California, but during the last three years,
wind farms coming online in Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming,
Oregon, and Pennsylvania have boosted U.S. capacity by half from 1,680
megawatts to 2,550 megawatts. The 1,500 or more megawatts to be added this
year will be located in a dozen states. A 300-megawatt wind farm under
construction on the Oregon/Washington border is currently the world's
largest.
But this is only the beginning. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA)
indicated in February that it wanted to buy 1,000 megawatts of
wind-generating capacity and requested proposals. Much to its surprise, it
received enough to build 2,600 megawatts of capacity in five states, with
the potential of expanding these sites to over 4,000 megawatts. BPA, which
may accept most of these proposals, expects to have at least one site online
by the end of this year.
A 3,000-megawatt wind farm in the early planning stages in South Dakota,
near the Iowa border, is 10 times the size of the Oregon/Washington wind
farm. Named Rolling Thunder, this project, initiated by Dehlsen Associates
and drawing on the leadership of Jim Dehlsen, a wind energy pioneer in
California, is designed to feed power to the midwestern region around
Chicago. This proposed project is not only large by wind power standards, it
is one of the largest energy projects of any kind in the world today.
Advances in wind turbine technology, drawing heavily from the aerospace
industry, have lowered the cost of wind power from 38 cents per kilowatt
hour in the early 1980s to 3 to 6 cents today depending on the wind site.
Wind, now competitive with fossil fuels, is already cheaper in some
locations than oil or gas-fired power. With major corporations, such as ABB,
Shell International, and Enron plowing resources into this field, further
cost cuts are in prospect.
Wind is a vast, worldwide source of energy. The U.S. Great Plains are the
Saudi Arabia of wind power. Three wind-rich U.S. states-North Dakota,
Kansas, and Texas-have enough harnessable wind to meet national electricity
needs. China can double its existing generating capacity from wind alone.
Densely populated Western Europe can supply all of its electricity needs
from offshore wind power.
Today Denmark, the world leader in wind turbine technology and manufacture,
is getting 15 percent of its electricity from wind power. For
Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany, it is 19 percent and,
for some parts of the state, 75 percent. Spain's industrial state of
Navarra, starting from scratch six years ago, now gets 24 percent of its
electricity from wind.
As wind generating costs fall and as concern about climate change escalates,
more and more countries are climbing onto the wind energy bandwagon. In
December, France announced it will develop 5,000 megawatts of wind power by
2010. Also in December, Argentina announced a plan to develop 3,000
megawatts of wind power in Patagonia by 2010. In April, the United Kingdom
accepted offshore bids for 1,500 megawatts of wind power. In May, a report
from Beijing indicated that China plans to develop some 2,500 megawatts of
wind power by 2005.
The growth in wind power is consistently outrunning earlier estimates. The
European Wind Energy Association, which in 1996 had set a target of 40,000
megawatts for Europe in 2010, recently upped it to 60,000 megawatts.
The Bush plan to add 393,000 megawatts of electricity nationwide by 2020
could be satisfied from wind alone. Money spent on wind-generated
electricity tends to remain in the community, providing income, jobs, and
tax revenue, bolstering local economies. One large advanced design wind
turbine, occupying a quarter acre of land, can easily yield a farmer or
rancher $2,000 in royalties per year while providing the community with
$100,000 of electricity. U.S. farmers and ranchers, who own most of the wind
rights in the country, are now joining environmentalists to lobby for
development of this abundant alternative to fossil fuel.
Once we get cheap electricity from wind, we can use it to electrolyze water,
producing hydrogen. Hydrogen is the fuel of choice for the new, highly
efficient, fuel cell engine that every major automobile manufacturer is now
working on. Daimler Chrysler plans to be on the market with fuel
cell-powered cars in 2003. Ford, Toyota, and Honda will probably not be far
behind. William Ford, Chairman of Ford Motor Company, says he expects to
preside over the demise of the internal combustion engine.
Surplus wind power can be stored as hydrogen and used in fuel cells or gas
turbines to generate electricity, leveling supply when winds are variable.
Wind, once seen as a cornerstone of the new energy economy, may turn out to
be its foundation. The wind meteorologist who analyzes wind regimes and
identifies the best sites for wind farms will play a role in the new energy
economy comparable to that of the petroleum geologist in the old energy
economy.
With the advancing technologies for harnessing wind and powering motor
vehicles with hydrogen, we can now see a future where farmers and ranchers
can supply not only much of the country's electricity, but much of the
hydrogen to fuel its fleet of automobiles as well. For the first time, the
United States has the technology and resources to divorce itself from Middle
Eastern oil.
In addition to neglecting the potential of wind, the Bush energy strategy
pays only lip service to climate stabilization. This is a high-risk
strategy. With business as usual, the International Panel on Climate Change
recently projected a global temperature rise during this century of up to 6
degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit). If this rise occurs, the rest of
the world may hold the United States, the leading CO2 emitter, responsible.
What the United States needs now is an energy plan for this century, one
that takes into account not only recent technological advances in wind
power, fuel cells, and hydrogen generators, but also the need to stabilize
climate. Perhaps Congress will bring the energy plan into the twenty-first
century and restore U.S. leadership in the fast-changing world energy
economy.
-30-
Lester Brown is President of the Earth Policy Institute
© Copyright 2001 Earth Policy Institute 2001. Additional data and
information sources at www.earth-policy.org or
contact Shane Ratterman at [log in to unmask] The Alerts may be
reproduced free of charge with due
acknowledgement given to Lester Brown and Earth Policy Institute. To help us
monitor this service, please mail or
email a copy of the publication in which they appear to Reah Janise
Kauffman, Earth Policy Institute, 1350
Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 403, Washington, DC 20036, USA. Phone:
202.496.9290. Email:
[log in to unmask] The Alerts are also available on the Web at:
http://www.earth-policy.org
</XMP>
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT
to [log in to unmask]
|
