World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

August 13, 2006 – Vol.11 No.21

WORLD WIND WATCH.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the US now has more than 10,000 megawatts of installed wind capacity. By the end of 2006, 3000 megawatts will have been installed during the year and investment in wind generation equipment in 2006 will be more than $3.5 billion.

Though 2006 will turn out to be an impressive year for US wind energy, next year and beyond may be even better. The AWEA predicts another 5000 or more megawatts will be installed in 2007 and by 2010 the US will have a total, in place, wind energy capacity of 25,000 megawatts. If the rate of growth continues the AWEA thinks that 100,000 megawatts will be in place by 2020.

One hundred thousand megawatts is enough to power the equivalent of 25-30 million homes. Visit the AWEA at http://www.awea.org/

Today one company operates well over a third of the US wind capacity - FPL Energy. Through subsidiaries FPL operates 3912 megawatts in 47 wind farms spread across the country. In the first 7 months of 2006 the company added 445 megawatts of wind to its portfolio and expects to have another 310 megawatts of new wind capacity up and operating before the new year.

FPL is not just the largest operator of wind turbines in the US, it’s now the largest in the world.

Visit FPL Energy at http://www.fplenergy.com/

The possibility that more than 100,000 megawatts of wind capacity will be in place in the US in less than fifteen years leaves the door open for many new entrants in the wind industry.

With bulging pockets of cash from the sale of petroleum products, BP may, in a few years, be one company grabbing a significant share of the growing wind energy market.

On the heels of a deal to secure wind turbine supply from Clipper Wind and the purchase of a 50-percent share in that company’s 2000 megawatt development portfolio, BP has now announced that it has purchased Greenlight Energy of Charlottesville, Virginia. For its outlay of $98 million BP will get a development portfolio of 39 mature and early stage wind projects that, if all were built, would generate 6500 megawatts of power. Some of the projects BP expects to develop over the next five years.

BP created BP Alternative Energy in November of 2005 with a planned investment of over $8 billion over 10 years to advance its presence in cleaner and renewable energies . Visit BP at http://www.bp.com/

Because of their length - and thus difficult and expensive to transport - it makes sense to manufacture turbine blades the shortest distance from wind farms and the nearest to water, rail and road transportation.

With its proximity to markets and transportation, Siemens has decided to built a wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in Fort Madison, Iowa in the heart of a growing middle-US wind energy market.

Production of blades for the company’s 2.3 megawatt turbines will begin in 2007. The blades will be manufactured using Siemens’ IntegralBlade technology which casts the blade in a one step process from epoxy resins reinforced with glass fiber. The plant will employ 250 in management, production and maintenance.

Visit Siemens Power Generation at http://www.siemens.com/powergeneration