Wind Energy Becomes a Global Option

Wind Energy Becomes a Global Option

One area with great interest and support at WIREC has been wind energy.  On Wednesday morning a panel spoke before a packed room on the topic of “Wind: Status of Technology.”  This panel was followed by “Wind: Financing” and together the two panels presented a picture of rapid growth and development on a global level.

The area of greatest growth in 2007 was the United States which installed over 5,000 megawatt capacity of wind energy, and a total of $9 billion dollars invested.  This represents 30% of all new energy growth in the United States.  While President Bush was at the event saying that nuclear energy is cleanest power generation technology for the future, the facts on the ground and in the banks all point to wind energy.

The overall status of wind technology is that with over 20 years of experience and research, wind technology is now in the mature phase.  The turbines are more flexible, technologically advanced and with a higher megawatt yield.  While previous development focused on size, new development is fine tuning the large turbines to increase productivity with turbines now capable of 6 megawatts each.

All of the panelists touched upon the need for greater and more direct interaction with the wind farms and the electrical grid.  Grid interaction is one of the last hurdles which wind energy needs to climb.  The other major issue is to reduce the cost of production and transportation, with a shift towards manufacturing in the regions and countries where the turbines will be installed.

Li Junfeng, the Secretary General of Renewable Energy of China, was on hand to discuss the growth of wind energy to meet the rising demands of China’s economy.  He said that "China will continue to develop its own domestic manufacturers to meet demands and continues to install turbines at a steady pace."  China has also installed its first off-shore wind farm (pictured below). It hopes to make wind a substantial portion of its energy portfolio, similar to Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. 

Most of the banks providing the financing for this global surge in wind energy are also based in Europe.  Adrian Katzew of Grupo Santander said that "German, Spanish and Portuguese banks are leading the way with a variety of financing plans to meet the needs of varied markets.  Strong growth in EU countries is supported by fixed feed-in tariffs" which offer sizable incentives to developers of wind energy over 15-20 year periods.  While the United States relies more on tax credits, the feed-in tariffs provide measurable income to companies that take the risk to build and install more turbines.  This has led to wind energy accounting for 4% of the total EU energy portfolio and 40% of all new energy projects.