HARNESSING THE WIND
Chapter 5. Building the Solar/Hydrogen Economy
Lester R. Brown, Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth
(W.W. Norton & Co., NY: 2001).
The modern wind industry was born in California
in the early 1980s in the wake of the oil price hikes of 1973 and
1979. Under the leadership of Governor Jerry Brown, the state added
its own tax incentive to an existing federal one to develop renewable
energy resources, creating an investment climate that yielded enough
wind-generating capacity statewide to satisfy the residential needs
of San Francisco. But after a fast beginning in California, U.S.
interest in wind energy lagged, almost disappearing for a decade.22
While interest in wind energy was sagging in the United States,
it was continuing to advance in Europe, led initially by Denmark,
which had built many of the wind turbines that were installed in
California. From 1995 to 2000, as noted earlier, wind energy worldwide
expanded nearly fourfold, a computer industry growth rate. (See
Figure 5-1.) And the United States got back into the race, with
AWEA projecting 60 percent growth in U.S. wind generating capacity
in 2001.23
Today Denmark gets 15 percent of its electricity from wind power.
For Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany, the figure
is 19 percentwith
some parts of that state getting an impressive 75 percent. Spain's
industrial state of Navarra, starting from scratch six years ago,
now gets 22 percent of its electricity from wind. But in terms of
absolute generating capacity, Germany has emerged as the world leader,
with the United States in second place. (See Table 5-1.) Spain,
Denmark, and India round out the top five.24
Advances in wind turbine technology, drawing heavily on the aerospace
industry, have lowered the cost of wind power from 38� per kilowatt-hour
in the early 1980s to less than 4� in prime wind sites in 2001.
(See Figure 5-2.) In some locations, wind is already cheaper than
oil or gas-fired power. With major corporations such as ABB, Royal
Dutch Shell, and Enron plowing resources into this field, further
cost cuts are in prospect.25
Wind is a vast, worldwide source of energy. The U.S. Great Plains
are the Saudi Arabia of wind power. Three wind-rich statesNorth
Dakota, Kansas, and Texashave
enough harnessable wind to meet national electricity needs. China
can double its existing generating capacity from wind alone. Densely
populated Western Europe can meet all its electricity needs from
offshore wind power out to an ocean depth of 30 meters.26
As wind generating costs fall and as concern about climate change
escalates, more and more countries are climbing onto the wind energy
bandwagon. Beginning in December 2000, the scale of world wind energy
development climbed to a new level. Early in the month, France announced
it will develop 5,000 megawatts of wind power by 2010. Later in
the month, Argentina announced a plan to develop 3,000 megawatts
of wind power in Patagonia by 2010. Then in April 2001, the United
Kingdom accepted offshore bids for 1,500 megawatts of wind power.
In May, a report from Beijing indicated that China plans to develop
some 2,500 megawatts of wind power by 2005.27
The actual growth in wind power is consistently outrunning earlier
estimates. The European Wind Energy Association, which in 1996 had
set a target of 40,000 megawatts for Europe by 2010, recently upped
its goal to 60,000 megawatts.28
In the United States, wind power was once confined to California,
but during the last three years wind farms coming online in Colorado,
Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming have boosted
U.S. capacity by halffrom
1,680 megawatts to 2,550 megawatts. (One megawatt of wind generating
capacity typically supplies 350 homes.) The 1,500 or more megawatts
to be added in 2001 will be located in a dozen states. A 300-megawatt
wind farm under construction on the Oregon/Washington border, currently
the world's largest, can supply 105,000 homes with electricity.29
But this is only the beginning. The Bonneville Power Administration
(BPA), a U.S. federal agency power supplier, indicated in February
that it wanted to buy 1,000 megawatts of wind-generating capacity
and requested proposals. Much to its surprise, it received enough
proposals to build 2,600 megawatts of capacity in five states, with
the potential of expanding these sites to over 4,000 megawatts.
BPA, which may accept most of these proposals, expects to have at
least one site online by the end of 2001.30
A 3,000-megawatt wind farm in the early planning stages in east
central South Dakota, near the Iowa border, is 10 times the size
of the Oregon/Washington wind farm. Named Rolling Thunder, this
proposed projectinitiated
by Dehlsen Associates and drawing on the leadership of Jim Dehlsen,
a wind energy pioneer in Californiais
designed to feed power into the Midwest around Chicago. It is not
only large by wind power standards, it is one of the largest energy
projects of any kind in the world today.31
Income from wind-generated electricity tends to remain in the community,
bolstering local economies by providing local income, jobs, and
tax revenue. One large advanced-design wind turbine, occupying a
quarter-acre of land, can easily yield a farmer or rancher $2,000
in royalties per year while providing the community with $100,000
of electricity.32
For farmers and ranchers, discovering the value of their wind resources
is like striking oil--except that the wind is never depleted. One
of wind's attractions is that the turbines scattered about a farm
or ranch do not interfere with the use of the land for farming or
cattle grazing. For ranchers with prime wind sites, income from
wind can easily exceed that from cattle sales. The wind boom can
rejuvenate rural communities throughout the world.
Once we get cheap electricity from wind, we can use it to electrolyze
water, splitting the water molecule into its component elements
of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is the simplest of fuels and, unlike
coal or oil, is entirely carbon-free. It is the fuel of choice for
the new, highly efficient fuel cell engine on which every major
auto manufacturer is now working. DaimlerChrysler plans to market
fuel cell-powered cars by 2003. Ford, Toyota, and Honda will probably
not be far behind.33
Surplus wind power can be stored as hydrogen and used in fuel cells
or gas turbines to generate electricity, leveling supply when winds
are variable. Wind, once seen as a cornerstone of the new energy
economy, is likely to become its foundation.
With the advancing technologies for harnessing wind and powering
motor vehicles with hydrogen, we can now see a future in which U.S.
farmers and ranchers supply not only much of the country's electricity,
but much of the hydrogen for its fleet of automobiles as well. For
the first time, the United States has the technology to divorce
itself from Middle Eastern oil.
Within the United States, a new lobby is developing for wind power.
In addition to the wind industry and environmentalists, U.S. farmers
and ranchers are now also urging lawmakers to support development
of this abundant alternative to fossil fuels.34
In manufacturing the turbines that convert wind into electricity,
Denmark is the world leader. Sixty percent of all the turbines installed
in 2000 were either manufactured by Danish companies or licensed
by them. This illustrates how a country can translate foresight
and a strong environmental commitment into a dominant position in
the fast-emerging eco-economy. The United States, although now experiencing
an extraordinary growth in wind energy development, is struggling
to get back into the race in the manufacturing of wind energy turbines.
The first utility-scale wind turbine manufacturing facility to be
built in the United States outside of California has recently started
operation in Champaign, Illinois, in the heart of the Corn Belt.35
The world is beginning to recognize wind for what it isan
energy source that is both vast and inexhaustible, an energy source
that can supply both electricity and hydrogen for fuel. In the United
States, farmers are learning that two harvestscrops
and energyare
better than one. Political leaders are realizing that harnessing
the wind can contribute to both energy security and climate stability.
And consumers opting for green electricity are learning that they
can help stabilize climate. This is a winning combination.
Table 5-1.
Wind Energy Generating Capacity in Selected Countries, 2000
|
Country |
Capacity
|
|
(megawatts)
|
Germany |
6,113
|
United States |
2,554
|
Spain |
2,250
|
Denmark |
2,140
|
India |
1,167
|
|
Source: See endnote 24. |
ENDNOTES:
22.
Colin Woodard, "Wind Power Pays Well for Denmark," San Francisco
Chronicle, 23 April 2001; Peter Asmus, Reaping the Wind (Washington,
DC: Island Press, 2000).
23. Figure 5-1 from Flavin, op. cit. note 3; AWEA, op. cit. note
3.
24. Denmark from Christopher Flavin, Worldwatch Institute, Vital
Signs 2001 press briefing, Washington, DC, 24 May 2001; Germany
from AWEA, Wind Energy Press Background Information (Washington,
DC: February 2001), and from Christian Hinsch, "Wind Power Flying
Even Higher," New Energy, February 2001, pp. 14-20; information
on Navarra from Felix Avia Aranda and Ignacio Cruz Cruz, "Breezing
Ahead: The Spanish Wind Energy Market," Renewable Energy World,
May-June 2000; Table 5-1 from AWEA, Global Wind Energy Market Report
2000, www.awea.org/faq/global2000.html, viewed 25 June 2001.
25. Cost reduction history from Glenn Hasek, "Powering the Future,"
Industry Week, 1 May 2000; Figure 5-2 from Flavin, op. cit. note
3.
26. According to AWEA, Texas, North Dakota, and Kansas would be
able to produce 3,470 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), exceeding the
3,087 billion kWh used by the United States in 2000, as reported
by DOE, EIA; AWEA, AWEA Wind Energy Projects Database, www.awea.org/projects/
and EIA Country Analysis Brief, DOE, www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/usa.html.
According to Debra Lew and Jeffrey Logan, "Energizing China's Wind
Power Sector," Pacific Northwest Laboratory, 2001, www.pnl.gov/china/ChinaWnd.htm,
China has at least 250 gigawatts of exploitable wind potential,
roughly equal to the current installed electrical capacity in China
as reported by EIA.
27. Dominique Magada, "France Sets Ambitious Target for Renewable
Power," Reuters, 10 December 2000; Argentina from "Under Spanish
Proposal, 15 Percent of Total Would be Eolic Energy," Agencia EFE,
7 February 2001; "UK Makes Leap into Offshore Wind Big Time," Renewable
Energy Report (Financial Times), May 2001; "China Sets Wind Power
Development," Asia Pulse, 19 October 2000.
28. European Wind Energy Association, "Wind Energy in Europe," www.ewea.org/src/europe.htm.
29. AWEA, "US Installed Capacity (MW) 1981-2001," www.awea.org/faq/instcap.html,
viewed 25 June 2001; families powered per megawatt based on Louise
Guey-Lee, "Forces Behind Wind Power," in DOE, EIA, Renewable Energy
2000: Issues and Trends (Washington, DC: February 2001), and on
Don Hopey, "Wind Turbines to be Installed Near Pennsylvania Turnpike,"
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 24 April 2001; "World's Largest Wind Plant
to Energize the West," PacifiCorp and FPL Energy, press release
(Salt Lake City, UT, and Juno Beach, FL: 10 January 2001).
30. George Darr, "Astonishing Number of Wind Proposals Blows into
BPA," Bonneville Power Administration, press release (Portland,
OR: 26 April 2001).
31. Jim Dehlsen, Clipper Wind, discussion with author, 30 May 2001.
32. Lester R. Brown, "U.S. Farmers Double-Cropping Corn and Wind
Energy," Earth Policy Alert (Washington, DC: Earth Policy Institute,
7 June 2001).
33. "DaimlerChrysler Unveils Fuel Cell Vehicle," Environmental News
Network, 18 March 1999; "Honda Has New Fuel-Cell Car," op. cit.
note 20.
34. "Corn Growers' Association Launches Education Program on Wind
Power," Wind Energy Weekly (AWEA), 25 May 2001, p. 4.
35. "BTM Predicts Continued Growth for Wind Industry," Renewable
Energy Report (Financial Times), May 2001, p. 8; figure of 60 percent
is based on listed market shares of top wind turbine suppliers;
Tom Gray, "Wind is Getting Stronger and is On Course for the Next
Decade," Renewable Energy World, May 1999.
Copyright
© 2001 Earth Policy Institute
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