Wind Energy Weekly

Wind Energy Weekly #687, Vol 15, 4th March 1996

*********************************************************************

Vol. 15, #687, 4 March 1996, published by the American Wind Energy Association. The full text of the WEEKLY is available in hardcopy form for $595/year and is recommended for those with a serious commercial interest in wind (the electronic edition contains only excerpts). A monthly hardcopy publication, the WINDLETTER, more suitable for those interested in residential wind systems is included with a $50/year individual membership in the Association. AWEA's goal is to promote wind energy as a clean and environmentally superior source of electricity. Anyone sharing this goal is invited to become a member. For more information on the Association, contact AWEA, 122 C Street, NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20001, USA, phone (202) 383-2500, fax (202) 383-2505, email windmail@mcimail.com. Or visit our World Wide Web site at http://www.econet.org/awea

________________________________________________________________

AWEA has recently launched a new electronic discussion mailing list on small-scale energy systems that include wind as a component. It's the perfect place to find out more about the design, selection, installation, operation, and maintenance of small wind systems and other small-scale systems hardware such as photovoltaic panels and batteries.

To subscribe to the AWEA Home Wind Energy mailing list, simply write to tomgray@econet.org

_______________________________________________________________

If you are a U.S. resident, please help us with our effort to keep Congress from making sharp cuts in U.S. federal wind and solar energy research programs. You can send a form e-mail letter to a member of the House Appropriations Committee with the click of a mouse button from http://www.netcom.com/~stevie2/budget.html. The Committee is expected to act on the research budget within the next two weeks.

_______________________________________________________________

ENERGY OUTLOOK

Australian utility plans to acquire 400 MW of renewables EIA sees renewables slowed despite improved technology

TRADE NEWS

AWEA board endorses NREL plan for certification tests

QUEENSLAND COMPANY TO BOOST RENEWABLES BY 400 MW BY 2010

The Queensland Transmission and Supply Corporation (QTSC) has called for the supply of 200 MW of electricity by the year 2001 from Queensland's sugar mills and has also committed to encouraging the development of other renewable energy sources with plans to purchase 400 MW of capacity by 2010, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Total generation for the State of Queensland is 6,600 MW. The state government will call for tenders early next year for the supply of renewable and alternative energy to produce 200 MW of power progressively over the next decade.

QTSC is one of Queensland's largest enterprises with fixed assets of A$5 billion and annual turnover of A$2 billion. The company employs 6,400 employees and supplies electricity to 1.4 million customers, mainly households, and owns 185,000 km of electricity transmission and distribution lines. It commenced operation on 1 January 1995 with a plan to coordinate and forecast the state's existing and future electricity needs. The company is a holding company for eight subsidiary corporations, responsible for major transmission and electricity distribution services in Queensland.

The group plans to sell its expertise to other Australian states and offshore, participate in competitive interstate markets, and use existing infrastructure to enter new markets as well as develop environmentally-friendly supply options.

Favorable progress has been made with the following alternative forms of energy:

wind energy monitoring at five coastal locations;
funding for investigations into coal seam methane extraction;
providing support to the National Energy Research & Development Corp for a second coal methane program near Moura in Central Queensland;
development of high temperature fuel cells capable of generating electricity from natural gas or similar fuels;
continued operation of a power plant using hot artesian water; and
collaboration with the Australian National University to develop a large solar dish collector.

EIA: RENEWABLES MARKING TIME DESPITE TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES

Despite technological and economic advances, renewable energy sources held steady at about a seven percent share of total U.S. energy consumption throughout the early 1990's and continue to face strong competition from conventional energy sources, according to a new Energy Information Administration report. Renewable energy sources play a larger role in non-utility generation of electricity, where they account for about 25 percent of the electricity generated.

The Energy Information Administration released these findings and other key information on the current status and prospects for future development of biomass (wood, municipal solid waste, and liquid fuels), geothermal, wind, and solar resources in early February in the RENEWABLE ENERGY ANNUAL 1995, its first comprehensive report on renewable energy.

Other report highlights:

Nonutility renewable electricity generation continues to grow: Nonutility renewable-generated electricity grew at an average annual rate of 8.6 percent between 1990 and 1994. Enactment of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 and various State regulations, particularly in California, contributed to this growth.
Wind is the fastest-growing renewable energy source: Wind energy costs decreased from about 50 cents per kilowatt-hour in 1980 to a current range of 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt- hour. As a result, wind energy penetrated energy markets faster than any other renewable technology. Extensive wind resources exist within 10 miles of transmission lines in the United States and are often geographically suitable and economically viable for development (see WIND ENERGY WEEKLY #644, May 1, 1995).
Solar technologies and economics continue to improve: Solar collector heating systems and off-grid photovoltaic technologies provide cost-effective and environmentally benign options for certain applications. Despite substantial cost reductions in recent years, grid-connected solar thermal-electric and photovoltaic technologies are not yet cost-competitive with conventional generating technologies. However, public-private joint ventures such as the Solar Two solar thermal plant in Barstow, Calif., and the Solar Enterprise Zone program in southern Nevada, which incorporates both solar thermal and photovoltaic systems, continue to move the technologies closer to commercialization.
The outlook for renewable energy technologies is uncertain: Heightened competition through the deregulation and restructuring of electricity generation could present challenges for future renewable energy development. New and proposed regulatory policies could also impede the development of renewables by reducing the importance of their nonmarket environmental benefits in the resource planning process.
The international market holds promise for renewable energy development: A significant share of the world population currently living without electricity resides far away from the nearest power grid. Stand-alone renewable technologies are cost-effective in many of these off-grid areas, providing electricity for lighting, communications, and water pumping. Also, many countries are pursuing renewable energy projects as part of their sustainable energy policies. These projects are encouraged through funding programs offered by organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations.

The RENEWABLE ENERGY ANNUAL 1995 is the first in an expected series of annual reports the Energy Information Administration intends to publish to provide a comprehensive assessment of renewable energy. For more information about the production of this report, contact Mark Gielecki, project coordinator, on 202/426-1141 or via Internet E-Mail at mgieleck@eia.doe.gov. Copies are available from the U.S. Government Printing Office or through the National Energy Information Center, Room 1F-048 Forrestal Building, Washington, DC 1-505, 202/586-8800. The report is also available through the Energy Information Administration's Web Site at http://www.eia.doe.gov on the Internet.

AWEA BOARD STRONGLY BACKS NREL CERTIFICATION TESTING

In a meeting February 8, the AWEA Board of Directors gave unanimous support to a draft proposal from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop the capability to carry out certification testing of wind turbines and other equipment such as wind measuring instruments.

Under the proposal, NREL would acquire additional testing equipment and institute training of staff so that it would have the ability to perform tests on wind turbine blades and other components as well as complete turbines. Results of the tests would be reported to certification agents, who would be responsible for actual certification of the equipment tested.

The proposal comes against a background of gradually accelerating activity in the area of certification:

U.S. wind equipment manufacturers are increasingly focusing on the international market while the domestic market is in the throes of utility deregulation.
India, where wind equipment installations are rapidly expanding, is moving toward certification requirements.
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which develops international standards for electrical equipment, has chartered a new Working Group on Wind Turbine Certification. The working group hopes to complete work on international certification procedures by late next year. AWEA has been participating actively in the IEC's wind turbine standards development activity and is represented on the working group.
The International Meeting of Test Stations (IMTS), a group of research organizations including NREL that meets regularly under the sponsorship of the International Energy Agency (IEA), has agreed to a program of "round-robin testing" under which a single wind turbine will be tested at laboratories in different countries. The program is aimed at determining what problems there may be in instrument calibration and other procedures and resolving those problems so that tests by all laboratories will yield comparable results.

The NREL draft envisions a multi-year effort to acquire testing equipment, develop procedures, train staff, and get to the point where certification testing could begin.

Testing could take place either at NREL or at the turbine manufacturer's site. The draft projects costs of $15,000-25,000 for power performance testing, $5,000-10,000 for measurement of noise emissions, and $75,000-150,000 for loads testing.

AWEA Standards Chairman Tom Gray called approval of the NREL proposal "extremely encouraging," adding, "Over the past decade, a substantial base of wind technology expertise and equipment has been assembled in the National Wind Technology Center. The development of a certification testing program there will take advantage of that investment in a way that provides a vital function to the U.S. wind industry.

"As certification becomes an essential ingredient for international marketing, this program will help U.S. wind companies maintain the credibility they need to be strong competitors."

_________________________________________________________________

                              NEWS
              **************************************
              *             from the               *
              *  AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION  *
              **************************************

For immediate release June 4, 1996

Contact: Jessica Maier or Karl Gawell, (202) 383-2500

POWER AGENCY RENEWABLES PROPOSAL NEEDS REWORKING, WIND GROUP SAYS

A proposal by the federal government's Western Area Power Administration (Western) to purchase part of its electricity from renewable resources such as wind and solar needs to be dramatically reconfigured or it may do more harm than good, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today.

In written comments on Western's plan, AWEA director of governmental affairs Karl Gawell called the proposed renewables purchase too small to allow a "cost-effective renewables contribution for Western's customers." If the program's poor design ends up producing high-cost power, Gawell argued, "This well-intentioned initiative could backfire, and instead of helping commercialize renewables, could reinforce the reluctance of some Western [customer utilities] to bring more renewables on line."

Western is one of several power marketing organizations established by the U.S. government to sell power from federally- owned hydro dams and other power plants to public and private utilities. Its service territory covers a broad area in the west central U.S.

Western's proposed plan to purchase renewable energy was announced in the Federal Register April 15. The agency said it might require each of six hydro projects it owns to obtain 5% of the power they purchase from renewable resources. This would amount to a total of some 78 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), or enough power to serve about 8,000 average American homes.

The problem with the proposal, Gawell said, is that "It chops up the proposed purchase into such small pieces that it will drive up the cost. It would take only about 30 megawatts (MW) of wind generating capacity, or 60 wind turbines, to provide the power required. But Western proposes to divide that 30 MW into six discrete purchases, and also says that it may set aside half of the requirement for solar electric, a substantially more expensive resource."

In addition, Gawell noted, while the proposal amounts to 5% of Western's power purchase, it is only equal to 0.3% of the agency's total electric power sales: "A considerably greater amount of renewable energy could be purchased without presenting systems reliability or other problems."

Other problems with the plan, Gawell said, include:

Western proposes to agree to purchase power only for eight years, until its customer contracts expire in 2004. This raises a serious financing obstacle. Wind plants have a high up-front cost relative to other power plants, and make up for that cost over the long term because they have no fuel cost. A wind plant is designed to produce power for 30 years, and its construction is typically paid for by a loan with a term of at least 10 years. A shorter loan repayment period of eight years would mean higher payments. Coupled with no guarantee for power purchase for the remaining life of the plant, it would again mean that the plant would need to receive much higher prices for its power to be viable. Noted Gawell, "Recent reports, such as the Land and Water Fund's Clean Energy Blueprint, forecast a significant increase in [electricity] demand in the coming decades in this region. That being the case, it makes no sense to cripple renewables with an arbitrarily short purchase period."
Western proposes to limit any cost increase from renewables to its customers to less than 1%, and estimates the cost of its renewables plan at $2.7 million per year. Commented Gawell, "While we are sensitive to the need to minimize impacts on consumer prices, this is only a small fraction of the cost of other projects undertaken by Western, such as the Hoover Dam Visitor Center, which alone is estimated to cost $123 million."

Gawell urged Western to develop a new proposal for power purchase from renewables that looks more closely at the renewable energy technologies and their characteristics and how they would best fit with Western's system. The federal government's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Boulder, Colo., he said, would be well equipped to assist the agency.

"Based upon the comments we have reviewed from the Land and Water Fund, Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and solar and wind companies," Gawell concluded, "there seems to be general agreement that Western needs to significantly increase its proposed renewable purchases, extend the proposed contract term to at least 15 years, and make other modifications to achieve success in this important initiative."

BACK TO

CES Departmental Library
Envis Homepage
CES Homepage
*********************************************************************