The boom in wind energy couldn’t be coming at a better time

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The boom in wind energy couldn’t be coming at a better time

Energy and Environment
By Chris Mooney August 10 at 8:23 AM

The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, released last week, requires the country to use a lot more renewable energy by the year 2030 — and a lot less coal. And right on time, two new reports published Monday by the Department of Energy find that one key renewable sector — wind — is booming, a development that can only help matters when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.

The reports being released — including the 2014 Wind Technologies Market Report, published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — suggest that wind is being installed at a rapid rate, that its costs are plummeting, that its technologies are advancing, and that it is creating a growing number of jobs to boot.

Wind energy in the U.S. is now at 66 gigawatts of installed capacity, according to the report — providing roughly 5 percent of total U.S. electricity demand. 66 gigawatts is enough electricity to power 17.5 million homes (a gigawatt is a billion watts). And, says Jose Zayas, who heads the wind and water power technologies office at the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 13 more gigawatts are now “in the construction phase” and set to come online by 2016.

For reference, in 2012, the U.S. had 1063 gigawatts of total installed electricity capacity, according to the Energy Information Administration.

[Bill USA]

1. I noticed Installed Capacity has leveled off the last few years. Has the GOP effectively killed the

PTC and ITC?

[kristopher]

2. No, it hasn't leveled off. No, they haven't killed the PTC or the ITC.

Feeling fuddish tonight, eh?

American wind power continues to ramp up in 2015
Policy stability critical so industry doesn’t face another cliff
July 22, 2015

Washington, D.C., July 22, 2015 — With 1,661 megawatts (MW) of newly installed wind turbines coming online during the second quarter of 2015 and more than 13,600 MW under construction, American wind power continues to increase its contribution to the U.S. electric power grid. The approval in May of Florida’s first purchase of wind energy, from a wind project in Oklahoma, added to the growing trend of Southeastern states purchasing wind power, as did the recent announcement of the first utility-scale wind farm to be built in North Carolina.

Building on that momentum, Congress also took a step in the right direction yesterday when the U.S. Senate Finance Committee voted 23-3 to extend the primary federal tax incentives for growing renewable energy as part of a larger tax policy extension bill.

“With a near-record amount of wind capacity under construction, this looks to be a strong year for American wind power,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). “However, to create longer term stability for the industry the full Senate and the House of Representatives must move quickly to extend the PTC and ITC. Hence the overwhelming bipartisan vote by the Senate Finance Committee yesterday to extend the PTC and ITC is good news for the 73,000 Americans employed by the wind power industry.”

The federal renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), which has the option to be taken as an Investment Tax Credit (ITC) instead, is the primary federal tax incentive for wind energy. This incentive has helped drive more than $100 billion in private investment in the U.S since 2008, and has been instrumental in allowing the industry to lower costs by more than 50 percent in the last five years....

http://www.awea.org/MediaCenter/pressrelease.aspx?ItemNumber=7732

[Bill USA]

3. knowledge is power....

[kristopher]

4. That graph is wrong.

It is found at this link: http://www.awea.org/Resources/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=5059

Here is the text that goes with it: Total U.S. installed wind capacity, through 4Q 2014: 65,879 MW

Note that the graph on that page matches the text. The copy that is linked to when you click the chart (the one you've posted), however, is an earlier one that doesn't reflect anything past 1Q. There is another one in the third quarter summary report showing installation to the end of 2Q. http://awea.files.cms-plus.com/FileDownloads/pdfs/3Q2014%20AWEA%20Market%20Report%20Public%20Version.pdf

Wind hasn't hit the doldrums and the PTC is going to pass. Let's just hope they strip out funds for ethanol.

BTW "Hair on fire" refers to your belief that making everything bold and red somehow enhances the impact of what you're posting. It doesn't. It just makes you seem a bit manic.