Catching Up with the Wind | Green Energy News

April 2, 2007 – Vol.12 No.2

CATCHING UP WITH THE WIND.

For the third time now I’ve seen gargantuan wind turbine blades on a purpose-built tractor trailer rig pulled over to the side of Interstate 95, one of the busiest highways in the US. Always heading south, the rig is led by an escort, a police escort and a tail vehicle. There are three blades - one turbine’s worth - packed in each trailer.

The entourage appears waiting for traffic to thin. Even on a major freeway negotiating the very long trailers - 150 feet or so - through turns would require stopping traffic, thus the need for police.

The trailored blades are a reminder of the expense of wind power. The shipping cost of these blades must be thousands of dollars (perhaps tens of thousands) per delivery. Hours spent by the side of the road waiting, with crew to be paid, adds to the shipping bill. Shipping adds to total project costs and ultimately the cost of wind energy sold to the grid, then to consumers.

The trailored blades by I-95 were also a reminder that the wind industry is growing worldwide, and in US, and that I haven’t done a wind energy news story in a while.

Let’s start small: small wind that is.

The US House of Representatives is considering an investment tax credit for small wind systems (considered 100 kilowatt or less) of $1500 per half-kilowatt of capacity. The credit, like other tax credits, comes off the taxpayer’s tax bill and is not a deduction against income. It seems quite generous (if I’m reading it correctly) and could make some small wind systems nearly free. (There are stipulations of course to the credit.)

The Rural Wind Energy Development Act, HR. 1772, is identical to S. 673 already passed in the Senate.

The Act is meant to encourage homeowners, farmers and small businesses to install turbines that can generate clean energy and provide additional income.

On the large scale, wIndy North Dakota is set to get its largest wind farm, the 159-megawatt Langdon Wind Project for Cavalier County.

FPL Energy will develop the project with Minnkota Power Cooperative and Otter Tail Power buying power and/or owning some of the turbines outright. The project will use 106 General Electric 1.5-megawatt turbines.

GE will also be supplying 184, 1.5 megawatt turbines for EDF Energies Nouvelles for projects planned for the US Midwest in their US expansion effort through their enXco subsidiary. Fifty turbines will be delivered in 2007, the remaining 134 in 2008.

Vestas will be supplying 88, 1.65 megawatt turbines for WE Energies for its Blue Sky Green Field wind project in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The 145-megawatt project will be that state’s largest and should be complete in 2008.

Energias de Portugal (EDP) has purchased Horizon Wind Energy from Goldman Sachs for the small sum of $600 million in cash. (The equity of Horizon was valued at $2.15 billion for purposes of the transaction.)

Horizon currently owns 559 megawatts in operating wind projects and has 997 megawatts of projects under construction. Further projects in the development pipeline, if completed, would exceed 9000 megawatts capacity.

Visit EDF Energies Nouvelles at http://www.edf-energies-nouvelles.com/ GE at http://www.gepower.com/ Vestas at http://www.vestas.com/ Energias de Portugal at http://www.edp.pt/ Horizon Wind at http://www.horizonwind.com/ GovTrack.us for S.673 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-673