Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), said during a Nov. 5 webcast that the main issues for wind energy development in 2011 will be the extension of Section 1603, or the Treasury Grant Program (TGP) and the creation of a federal Renewable Electricity Standard (RES).
As a result of the TGP, 40,000 U.S. wind energy jobs were saved and 10,000 MW of new wind power came onto the grid in 2009, Bode said. However, wind energy progress could be imperiled through the potential Dec. 31, 2010 TGP start date expiration.
“The Treasury Grant Program has been successful at keeping American jobs from going overseas,” Bode said. “Policies like these are exactly what the industry needs in order to keep wind growing and to regain our position as a global leader.”
Bode said she is hopeful at the prospect of an extension after hearing of an internal White House memo circulated on Nov. 4, 2010 in which administration officials discussed the program’s extension.
While 2009 was a year of growth for wind energy, 2010 has told a different story. Installations for the first three quarters of 2010 are down 72 percent from last year. U.S. power plant developers added 395 megawatts of wind power in the third quarter, the slowest growth since 2007.
Elizabeth Salerno, director of industry data and analysis for AWEA, said 5,000 MW of total wind installations are expected by year end 2010. This number is dependent largely on whether the TGP start date is extended through the end of 2012. If it is, then many project start dates are expected to be pushed back to 2011 or 2012. If it is not extended, then developers will likely rush to start projects in the fourth quarter of 2010.
In 2010, Oregon added the most wind capacity of any state, and Delaware made it on the list of 37 states with wind generation. The top three wind producing states are Texas, Iowa and California.
Bode said AWEA looks forward to working with Congress and Senate to progress policies for renewables, citing Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Rep. Jerry Moran of Kansas, Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut as some of the key proponents for wind energy. Bode said a RES is a key to the growth of the wind energy industry, but it may be molded into a clean energy standard, combining renewables with fossil fuel generation.
“If you include those other resources and turn it into a clean energy standard, you have to make sure the renewables are highlighted and diversified,” Bode said.
To date in 2010, 40 percent of new generation has come from coal and only 13 percent from wind. In contrast, wind made up 39 percent of new generation in 2009, almost matching the growth of natural gas, and coal took 13 percent.
While policy will be the key player for U.S. wind growth in 2011, technology developers continue to move forward, with internal manufacturing efforts increasing. Bode said wind is the fastest growing manufacturing sector in the country, having increased domestic content from 25 to 50 percent in the last few years.
In addition, wind energy technologies are branching into offshore developments. In October, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed the first lease for commercial offshore wind energy, which would make Cape Wind on Nantucket Sound the first wind farm on the Outer Continental Shelf. Another handful of offshore wind projects are being considered off the coasts of Delaware, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, and even Ohio, in Lake Erie.
Bode said the signing of the first offshore lease was historic when taking into consideration how profitable offshore oil and gas leases have been for decades.
What will happen with wind energy in 2011? That question continues to loom over the renewable energy industry.
“The post-2010 world of wind energy is filled with question marks because we don’t know where the economy or policies are going to land,” Salerno said. “All of these factors really push around the growth in wind.”
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