World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

June 12, 2005 – Vol.10 No.12

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Good news about wind energy is good news for the wind energy industry.

Be sure to read the series of Op-Ed pieces about wind energy - particularly offshore wind - in the Boston Globe.

Proponents of wind energy are fighting hard to see the Cape Wind offshore wind farm built. Cape Wind, slated for the south coast of Massachusetts, is being fought by landowners along the coast that may see (on clear days) thumb-nail-tall turbines in the distance.

The Op-Ed pieces can be accessed through the Cape Wind website at http://www.capewind.org/ (click News)

With a 15-year power purchase agreement in hand, AES will be certain to rush completion of the first phase of its Buffalo Gap wind project in Texas. The 120-megawatt project will employ 67 Vestas 1.8-megawatt V-80 turbines.

AES is working to build wind farms in New York state, is developing wind projects in the U.S. mid-Atlantic states, has purchased wind energy producer SeaWest, and combined, has 2750-megawatts of wind projects in the development stage in 14 states in the U.S.

All of the power from phase one of Buffalo Gap will be sold to retail electricity provider Direct Energy. Completion of the project by the end of the year will make it eligible to receive the U.S. production tax credit (PTC) for wind generated electricity. The PTC expires at midnight December 31, 2005. Visit AES at http://www.aes.com/

Vestas will be the provider of turbines for a 98-megawatt wind farm to be built in South Korea.

The Gangwon Wind Park, in the north-east section of the country, will be built on two mountain crests near Odaesan National Park in the county of Pyeongchang. The first 28-megawatt phase with 14, 2.0-megawatt turbines will be installed this year. The remaining 70-megawatts will be installed in 2006. Visit Vestas at http://www.vestas.com/

To date the U.K. ranks number 8 in terms of installed wind power capacity. The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) reports that the country now has 1037.7 megawatts installed. But by the end of 2010 another 6 gigawatts (6000 megawatts) could be up and running, says the trade group. (This seems possible especially if the 1000-megawatt London Array is built offshore.)

Wind energy now represents 0.8 percent of the U.K.’s electricity supply.

Ahead of the U.K. in rankings (in megawatts) are Germany (16,629), Spain (8263), U.S. (6740), Denmark (3117), India (1125 ), Italy (1125), The Netherlands (1078).

2005 will be a banner year for the U.K. in new, installed wind capacity with 500 megawatts expected to be complete by year’s end. Visit the BWEA at http://www.bwea.org/