|
Wind
2004 capacity additions
Wind power developers in the United States
by year-end 2004 installed about 6,740 MW
of utility
scale wind capacity. Ironically, some
of the best wind resources in the world
are located in the Dakotas and only 130
MW have been installed - primarily because
of transmission constraints. Here is a brief
summary of a few wind projects developed
in 2003:
- Oklahoma, Illinois, and Ohio got their first installations of large-scale
wind turbines.
- Both Spanish turbine manufacturer Gamesa and Indian manufacturer
Suzlon installed their first machines in the U.S., both in Minnesota.
- Minnesota added the most new wind power (226 MW) of any state in
2003, moving back into third place in total capacity behind only California
and Texas.
- Three other states topped the 200-MW mark in new installations in
2003: California, with 212 MW; New Mexico, with 205 MW; and Texas, with
204 MW.
- Leading states in cumulative capacity at year's end were California
(2,043 MW), Texas (1,293 MW), Minnesota (563 MW), Iowa (472 MW), and
Wyoming (285 MW).
- Minnesota-based construction firm Mortenson was involved in the construction
of over 625 MW of wind added in the U.S. in 2003.
- More than half of the new capacity installed in 2003 consisted of
GE Wind turbines. In its first full year in the market after having
purchased Enron Wind in early 2002, GE Wind has been a strong player
in the U.S. market.
Project information for all existing wind power projects is available
at the AWEA website.
Cumulative global wind energy generating capacity topped 39,000 megawatts
and reached 39,294 MW at the end of 2003. New equipment totaling 8,133
MW in capacity was installed worldwide during the year, an increase of
26 percent according to estimates by the American Wind Energy Association.
For more information on the global wind energy marketplace, see AWEA's
report.
One benefit of all this wind activity is a maturation of the wind supply
industry. The technologies have improved; costs have continued to come
down; lenders are more familiar with the technology; many states have
experience with turbine siting; and all the accompanying services needed
to support wind installations-wind data analysis, site preparation,
tower design and installation, and so on-are now of higher quality and
are available at lower cost. In short, wind power is a much more dependable
and cost-effective technology than it was just a few years ago.
Despite these advances, wind energy still faces financial, perceptual,
and resource siting and integration challenges. Delivered wind power
currently accounts for less than one-half of 1 percent of all installed
generation capacity in the U.S. As a result, most generation, transmission,
and distribution planners have never worked with wind power's unique
characteristics. And there are still uncertainties about the costs and
system effects of integrating wind into power grids. But there is also
a significant amount of publicly and privately funded research into
the technological advances and regulatory adaptations that will enable
continued wind power development. For a snapshot of the successes and
challenges currently facing wind power, see AWEA's
Wind Energy Outlook 2004.
|
|
