Wind is the Dominant Renewable

There has been significant growth in the generating capacity of wind over the past decade. Based on DOE data, the growth of wind generated power has significantly outpaced biomass, waste and geothermal. The chart below illustrates the growth in wind as a renewable energy source for the U.S.

Growth of wind as a renewable energy source is expected to continue and the DOE goal is for 20 percent of the nation’s energy to be provided by wind by the year 2030. By the year 2013, projections indicate the turbines and component systems alone will be a $60 billion annual business with over $15 billion of that being in Texas.

The Benefits

Additional Generating capacity

The nation’s growing need for power is expected to increase by 21 percent over the next 20 years, according to the U.S. Energy Administration. Wind energy is one of cleanest solutions to this ever-growing problem. Increasing the use of wind energy will in turn reduce the need for large, conventional coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants. The potential of wind energy is estimated by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) to be up to 10,777 billion kWh annually, which is actually double the total amount of electricity generation capacity in the country today.

Air Quality Improvement

Experts warn that we should decrease our CO2 emissions by 80-90 percent by 2050 to avoid dangerous levels of warming. Since wind power is completely emission-free, renewable and readily available, it is among the most effective ways to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions. A single 1-MW wind turbine can displace 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide in one year, which is approximately the same impact of planting one square mile of forest.

According to AWEA, the emissions from all of the nation’s coal-fired power plants could be offset, if only 10 percent of the country’s wind potential were developed. A more modest and achievable goal of using wind to generate 20 percent of the country’s electricity would offset more than 30 percent of coal-fired plant emissions.

Reduced Dependence on Hydrocarbon Fuels

Additional wind power can diversify the country’s mix of fuel sources, reducing our dependence on hydrocarbon fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas. Wind energy also has the potential to moderate and stabilize the overall cost of electricity to business and consumers because natural gas and coal prices fluctuate, while wind energy has a fixed cost.

Workforce Development

Nationally, more than 85,000 people are employed in the wind industry today, up from 50,000 one year ago. The recent growth of the wind power industry has also accelerated job creation in manufacturing, where the share of domestically manufactured wind turbine components has grown from under 30 percent in 2005 to about 50 percent in 2008. Wind turbine and turbine component manufacturers announced added or expanded 70 new facilities in the past two years, including over 55 facilities in 2008 alone. The figure shown below is from the DOE Wind report published May 2008 and shows the expected jobs for the industry and highlighting the need for workforce development to meet the estimated demand for a trained workforce of up to 180,000 jobs at all levels - from technician to graduate students.

In West Texas, the number of planned and potential projects will increase current production capacities of 8,000 MW to about 18,000 MW. This increase in production capacity is expected to generate more than 900 new jobs in Texas with an annual payroll in excess of $59 million. If you use numbers outlined by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), which include the whole value chain, the number of new jobs created is approximately 6,000 with an annual payroll in excess of $390 million. At a more macro level, if you assume that Texas grows its current generating capacity from 8,361 MW to 136,100 MW, which AWEA claims as the state’s potential, we would create 76,643 new jobs with an annual payroll of more than $4.9 billion.

Currently, there is not a readily accessible facility where education, training and hands-on experience using the latest wind technology and wind farm operations can be conducted. Privately held wind farms are not suited for such purposes. This initiative is uniquely designed to provide the necessary workforce development programs and facilities needed within the state and nation to meet this growing demand.