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- Category: Industry News
BTM Consult has released a special report on the international wind power industry. The report gives a comprehensive review of the decade 1995–2004, covering markets, supplies and consolidation of the wind power industry. Two new scenarios for future development of wind power are presented: a short-term forecast for 2015 and a long-term scenario for 2025.
- Category: Industry News
A new report by the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University shows that the UK has the best wind resource in Europe. The report, commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry, analysed hourly wind speeds collected by the Met Office at 66 locations across the UK since the 1970, making it the most extensive research of the UK's wind resource to date.
- Category: Industry News
The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) has joined the US Department of Energy (DOE) and GE to unveil ‘A Framework for Offshore Wind Energy Development in the United States’, an agenda aimed at tapping abundant offshore winds, especially over deep waters. The Framework, developed over the past year, identifies the technical, environmental, economic and regulatory needs required for the responsible development of offshore wind energy potential in the USA, as well as strategies for addressing them. The US DOE estimates that more than 900GW of wind generation capacity, an amount roughly equivalent to the total current installed US electrical capacity, exists within 50 miles off US coasts. The winds over deep waters off the New England coast are among the strongest anywhere in the USA. The Framework is intended to help the USA develop its offshore wind energy industry through a highly collaborative, multi-sector approach. A major goal of this collaborative effort is to bring government, industry and universities together to spur innovation in wind energy technologies. The document also recognises the importance of considering this offshore energy source in the context of emerging national ocean conservation and management priorities.
- Category: Industry News
Research and Markets has announced the addition of U.S. Wind Prospects 2004 Edition to its offering. With most US states having initiatives in place to increase their generation of electric power by utilising renewable energy resources, wind power is proving to be an effective alternative energy source. There is more than 2,000MW of wind generation currently installed in the USA and wind power is the fastest growing energy source. It is expected to serve 6% of the nation’s electric load by 2020. The 2004 edition Wind Prospects wall map is the ultimate resource for identifying wind resource potential across the USA. The map’s dimensions are 36 x 60 inches (roughly 1 x 1.5 m), and its features include:
- wind resource potential, as defined by PNNL’s Wind Atlas of the United States, filtered with transmission line and other geographic layers
- transmission lines 115kV and above, coloured by voltage
- transmission constraints
- existing wind power plants, labelled with plant name and sized by capacity (MW)
- geographic identifiers, such as major cities and population centres
- a number of high-resolution wind power resource maps
- a state policies and incentives encouraging utility-scale renewable energy investment inset map
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regional inset maps of areas where there are high concentrations of installed wind plants (Los Angeles area, San Francisco area and Sioux Falls area).
- Category: Industry News
The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) has welcomed an agreement that has seen the Ministry of Defence (MOD) lift its objections to a number of wind energy projects in southern Scotland. Following discussions between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), MOD and Scottish Executive, a solution has been found to concerns that wind farms planned near the Eskdalemuir seismic array could interfere with the array’s role in monitoring the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. This has resulted in the MOD lifting its objections to wind farm applications within an 80km ‘exclusion zone’ put in place around the array in February 2004. All applications must still go through the normal planning and consent process. The BWEA, DTI and MOD established a working group and commissioned Keele University to undertake a detailed analysis of any impacts on the array from planned turbines. The results confirmed that beyond 17.5km from the array, wind developments will not adversely affect the function of this internationally important monitoring station.
- Category: Industry News
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) hailed the extension of the wind energy production tax credit (PTC) included in the wide-ranging energy bill that Congress has recently adopted and President Bush is soon expected to sign into law. The PTC, which was scheduled to expire on 31 December 2005, provides a 1.9 cent-per-kilowatt-hour (kWh) tax credit for electricity generated with wind turbines over the first ten years of a project’s operations, and is a critical factor in financing new wind farms. This is the first time that an extension of the production tax credit for wind energy has been approved before the credit expires, and follows the past six years of boom-and-bust cycles caused by successive expirations. Up to 2,500MW of wind energy capacity are scheduled to come on-line in the USA during 2005. With the timely extension of the PTC, the AWEA anticipates that strong growth momentum will continue in 2006 and 2007. The bill does not contain restrictions on the availability of the PTC or place limits on offshore wind projects, as some anti-wind lawmakers had proposed.
- Wind has become a mainstream energy source
- 2005 already a record year for Canada
- Wind energy companies hope for support
- Wind development in Sweden grows by 10MW
- BTM report reveals rise in global wind energy capacity
- R&D essential to create platform for growth for Europe
- Renewable energy company stocks boosted by ‘Kyoto Effect’
- US wind industry continues expansion
- Wind power continues to grow in 2004 in the EU
- Public embrace wind power on day Kyoto comes into force
