Wind industry grows at record pace in 2009 (xpost from LBN)

[bananas]

Posted by TomCADem in LBN yesterday:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4337133

Wind industry grows at record pace in 2009

Source: Marketwatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. wind industry blew away all previous records in 2009, as more wind energy was added to the power supply than ever before, keeping the United States as the global wind leader.

The industry installed more than 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity in 2009, enough to power 2.4 million homes, according to the annual report released Thursday by the American Wind Energy Association.

Last year, 5,700 individual turbines were installed, "not bad for a year with some economic slowdown," said Liz Salerno, AWEA director of industry data and analysis, at a New York City press conference .

* * *

Green energy and natural gas together accounted for more than 90% of all new generating capacity in 2009, according to the report.


Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wind-industry-grows-at-record-pace-in-2009-2010-04-08

---

Al Gore may not have been the father of the internet, but President Obama has certainly given a huge boost to green energy.

[malakai2]

1. I suspect it doesn't need to be said, but...

The industry installed more than 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity in 2009, enough to power 2.4 million homes, according to the annual report released Thursday by the American Wind Energy Association.

So my question is, how many homes were powered by the electricity actually generated by those turbines last year? 2.4 million or decidedly fewer?

[Massacure]

3. The amount of homes powered is a stupid measure

Sure you can assume a 25% capacity factor and that homes use 10 megawatt-hours a year and come up with a number like 2.1 million, but that is kind of pointless.

Industry consumes 1/3 of electrical generation, but overall uses more energy than residential and commercial consumers.

NNadir once posted an awesome report regarding energy distribution. You can find it here:
https://www.llnl.gov/str/pdfs/12_98.1.pdf

Page 2 of the report is a real jem. Notice how much of our energy consumption is in the form electricity, and how much energy it takes to create electricity.

[malakai2]

4. Well, yeah

But that's how wind energy companies do their press releases - "X number of megawatt capacity, capable of powering Y number of homes!"

Then you sit down with them in private permitting or planning meetings and they're very up front about the capacity factor being somewhere between 0.20 and 0.35, among other realities that don't go into the press releases. If you go to a township or county meeting where people are deciding how best to control this development in their communities, guess which version usually "wins" the argument? I saw the results of one this week in my county, where several motions were voted down, among them setbacks from major roads, motions to set the dB limit at 35ish (from residents) and 48 (from industry rep), and interestingly, a motion to require companies to hold bonds for cleanup and removal of turbines they own. The result is that the setback from homes is a quarter mile, there is no setback from major roads, companies do not need to provide proof of financial ability to clean up a site in the event of disaster or bankruptcy, and the noise limit stayed at 45ish dB.

Absent from the discussions was any real discussion of large scale energy distribution and whatnot. The big drivers of keeping things the way they were and welcoming wind developers with open arms were money and some nebulous concept of clean domestic electricity generation.

[bananas]

5. What bullshit - the nuclear industry also uses "millions of homes".

I guess that means the nuclear industry is "stupid", too.
Imagine that - pro-nukes calling the nuclear industry stupid.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=nuclear+million+homes&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=2a8010b183e460ee

About 1,060,000 results

#
Atomic energy could have lit 40 million homes
Feb 24, 2009 ... India's nuclear bosses also knew since 2000 that a massive energy crisis was coming the country's way.
www.freeenergy.ca/news/117/ARTICLE/1516/2009-02-24.html - Cached

#
TVA's Nuclear Plants
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
it can produce enough electricity to supply. 1.3 million homes a day. Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. TVA's third nuclear plant,. Watts Bar, is located at the ...
www.tva.gov/power/pdf/nuclear.pdf - Similar

#
Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 completes planned ...
Mar 24, 2010 ... Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 in Lusby, Md., ... at full power — enough electricity to power more than 1 million homes or about ...
www.elp.com/.../nuclear/.../Calvert_Cliffs_Nuclear_Power_Plant_Unit_1_completes_planned_refueling_outage.html

#
British Energy - News Article - Hunterston B is powering one ...
Aug 29, 2008 ... Hunterston B is powering one million homes again after raising output on ... the return to service of Hunterston B nuclear power station, ...
www.british-energy.com › News › Press archive › News Article - Cached

#
How much energy does a Nuclear power plant produce? - Yahoo! UK ...
A nuclear power plant can produce that much of energy, which can be used by one million homes. you can get some knowledge from this website. ...
uk.answers.yahoo.com › ... › Green Living - Cached

#
Entergy Nuclear Expects to Save Up to $1 Million per Day with ...
Sep 15, 2009 ... Headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, Entergy Nuclear and its EquaGen ... generating capacity, enough power for nearly 10 million homes. ...
www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090915006750/en - Cached

#
Constellation Energy Group - Constellation Energy Nuclear Group's ...
Mar 23, 2010 ... Constellation Energy Nuclear Group owns Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power ... power - enough electricity to power more than 1 million homes or ...
ir.constellation.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=454236 - Cached

#
Edit International - Hyperion NUCLEAR IN A BOX
At present 104 nuclear plants, each serving one million homes, provides 20 percent of America's electric power. Each plant produces 1000 megawatts. ...
www.editinternational.com/read.php?id=492359d497afa - Cached - Similar

[malakai2]

6. My county didn't just hold a meeting on a nuclear plant

They did hold a meeting on wind power, and some local landowners did advance that industry position, effectively enough that setback, bond, and noise rules did not change. I don't know that they'd be looking at a nuclear plant from the "enough electricity to run Y houses" perspective anyway, I get the feeling they'd wonder first why we'd bother with nuclear here. They're perfectly happy to run a large coal plant (and four more in the area) so they can sell the excess electricity to Minnesota, so that Minnesota can use those electrons while still meeting their carefully-worded RPS by not burning that coal within Minnesota. From the locals' perspective, it's not about lowering emissions or minimizing environmental impacts at all, it's about making easy money.

In the case of the pro-development landowners referenced above, they can lease a couple acre or half acre sites well away from their homes (but near their neighbors' homes...TS, I guess), get a big check up front, and then continue to pull in essentially the same farm subsidy money for the duration of the surface lease. So they lobby for it, not using the "hey, vote for this because I'm gonna be rich" ploy that works so well in public discourse, but using the "enough electricity to run Y houses" position. If that's not persuasive enough, they say things like "will grow the local economy," "will provide new jobs," and "they're going to be built anyway, we might as well get the benefit ($) here."

[Nederland]

2. I have to ask

Green energy and natural gas together accounted for more than 90% of all new generating capacity in 2009, according to the report.

How much was green energy and how much was natural gas? 45%/45%, or 88% NG and 2% green?

[joshcryer]

7. We'll know when the full EIA Outlook comes out sometime in the next few days (I think).

Should get quite interesting around here.