Wind Power Gets Stimulus Windfall
| Wed Apr. 29, 2009 12:09 PM PDT
The Department of Energy will devote $93 million of stimulus money to wind power technology. Not terribly surprising, considering that wind is all the rage at the moment. To wit: The wind industry now employs more people than the coal industry.
Most of the money will be spent on turbine-related projects (allocation breakdown after the jump). But Cleantech Blog points out that the biggest obstacle facing wind power is actually pipeline problems:
Look at the study “20% Wind Energy by 2030” released in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Energy to envision the implications of supplying 20% of the nation’s electricity needs by 2030 from wind. Oh, there’s plenty of wind to actually supply the electricity, no problem. It’s just that tons of new transmission capacity would be needed.
And there’s the rub. It’s only marginally easier to site and build a new transmission line than a new nuclear powerplant. Transmission lines take many years and sometimes even decades to get done, due to a variety of NIMBY forces and overlapping regulatory regimes at the local, state and federal levels. And, they cost a fortune, easily a million dollars a mile, often considerably more.
So, that “pipeline” from Dakota to Chicago is on the order of a billion dollars of merely enabling infrastructure – and since there are many pinchpoints in the national power grid, that wind power probably couldn’t go much further than the terminating point anyway.
And that NIMBY thing? Still a problem—and one that stimulus money probably won't solve.
According to the DOE, here's where the money will go:
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- $45 million for wind turbine drivetrain R&D and testing
DOE will provide $45 million directed toward enhancing the federal government’s ability to support the wind industry through testing the performance and reliability of current and next generation wind turbine drivetrain systems.
This investment will deliver dependable and cost effective hardware for utility scale wind turbines with over a 20 year design life. Overall, this project will help to improve the country’s competitiveness in wind energy technology, lower capital costs of wind systems, and maintain a high level of wind energy capacity growth. - $14 million for technology development
To strengthen its support of the wind industry, DOE will make available $14 million to advance technology development in the private sector. This effort will aim to improve the quality and use of lighter weight, advanced materials for turbine blades, towers, and other components. Another area of emphasis will be process controls for lamination, blade finishing, trimming, grind, painting, materials handling and inspection. - $24 million for wind power research and development
DOE will provide $24 million for the development of up to three consortia between universities and industry to focus on critical wind energy challenges. These partnerships will allow universities to establish research and development programs to advance material design, performance measurements, analytical models, and work with the industry to improve power systems operations, maintenance and repair, and component manufacturing. - $10 million for National Wind Technology Center
DOE will invest $10 million at its own National Wind Technology Center in Colorado. This funding will enhance the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s ability to support the wind industry through testing current and next generation wind turbine drive train systems for better performance and reliability. Additionally, upgrades to the electrical distribution system will permit cost recovery of the power produced by two new utility-scale wind turbines being installed there for testing and evaluation.
Comments
I guess the first paragraph
Submitted by Erik Friedman (not verified) on Thu Apr. 30, 2009 6:13 AM PDT.
I guess the first paragraph says it all, the wind power industry employs more people than the coal industry. Now how much more power does the coal industry produce? I know you'd love to stay and argue but another one of you wind turbines just failed and you'd better go fork over a ton of money to get it back online.
Smells like Snake Oil.
Submitted by Barry on Thu Apr. 30, 2009 1:07 PM PDT.
Wind turbines have become the Anti-Carbonite Religion’s Holy Cross. They bow and worship at their feet. In fact, we are being sold a solution akin to the ole Snake Oil salesman. Put your emotions aside and look at the facts.
Wind turbines, like all generating units, are measured based upon their potential output at 100% power. A two-megawatt wind turbine means it will put out two megawatts of electricity at a rated wind speed….typically in the range of 26 mph. So when you hear of a “1000 megawatt wind project” that means all the turbines operating at 100% power 24/7 will produce 1000 megawatts. The truth is, the best wind projects operate around 20% capacity factor and most are less. What does that mean? We still must have reliable base load generating power.
For example, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) owns a fleet of wind turbines in one of the best wind areas and they average 13.9% capacity factor. BPA's wind generators produced 80 to 100% capacity only 5% of the time! 43% of the time they produced less than 20% capacity. The overall average for 2007 was 13.9%. Can you really afford to invest in power generation that works at 80% capacity or better only 18 days a year? Would you hire some one and pay them for 8 hours of work when they only work 1.12 hours?
Another report from a German utility that has a vision for 1000’s of installed wind turbine megawatts shows they operate at around 20% capacity factor. Their report (see link) states that reliable base load is still required equal to 96% of the installed wind capacity and that once they have 44,000 megawatts of installed wind capacity they MAY be able to retire 2000 megawatts of fossil plants.
http://www.nerc.com/docs/pc/ivgtf/EON_Netz_Windreport2005_eng.pdf
Do y’all realize what they are saying? We are investing and paying for Snake Oil! Wind power is not going to replace 20% of our nation’s needs because there is not a one for one megawatt exchange with base load generation! We are basically building and paying for (through our taxes and raised electrical rates) equipment that underperforms and does little to do what proponents say – reduce carbon emissions.
The only reliable source of 24/7 base load power source that does not emit carbon or any other gas harmful to the environment is nuclear power. The sooner the Anti-Carbonites tell their Anit-Nuclear Powerites to shut up and forget the wind turbines, the better for us all. We could have replaced all the fossil plants years ago with nuclear power. This is a case where some environmentalists have caused more harm than good. A good topic for another day.
Wind power technology...
Submitted by Construction (not verified) on Mon May. 4, 2009 11:49 AM PDT.
The wind power industry is quite a growing industry employing a considerable number of people. It is great to know that finally the Department of Energy will devote money to wind power technology.
Boom Trucks
Submitted by Boom Truck (not verified) on Tue Dec. 1, 2009 12:57 PM PST.
Great site. Thanks for sharing. Keep up the awesome work!
Interesting
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Jan. 27, 2010 8:31 AM PST.
I find it quite interesting to hear about the millions of dollars that people are using from the economic stimulus package. Everyone's coming out of the woodwork these days with millions of dollars from that stimulus. How 'bout handing out some of that dough to the little people??
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